

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap..i^^ Copyright No, 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




HONOR OF THIEVES 



HONOR OF THIEVES 


ilo\)el 


BY 

C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE 

AUTHOR or 

**THE NEW EDEN,” “ THE' RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS,” “ADVENTURES OF 
CAPTAIN KETTLE,” “THROUGH ARCTIC LAPLAND,” ETC., ETC. 




R. F. FENNO & COMPANY : 9 and 1 1 EAST 

SIXTEENTH STREET : NEW YORK CITY 

LONDON — CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 
1899 
d 


•Bcown oop^. 




C. J. CUTCIvIFFK HYNS 


TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 



Honor of Thieves. 


MY VARIOUS SHIPMATES 
AND SHOREMATES 

ON SEA AND AMERICAN LAND IN 1893 
IN MEMORY OF 

WHAT WE SAW TOGETHER AND WHAT WE DID. 




PREFACE. 


“ It seems to me,” said a philosopher once, 
that there are no entirely good men in the 
world, and none completely bad. Single out 
your best man, and you will find that he lacks 
perfection in some part of him ; and examine 
your worst, and you will see that he has at least 
one redeeming quality.” 

In this book the men mostly verge towards 
bad : but some are better than others. Because 
they are merely human, they act according to 
their lights. You may meet others like them any 
day if you go out and about, and most of them 
give extremely good dinners. Till they are found 
out, you consider them amusing : afterwards, be- 
ing better than they, you instantly set them down 
as most pernicious scoundrels, and shake hands 
with yourself, and write to your tailor to order 
more noticeable phylacteries on the next new 
suit. This is called “ keeping up a healthy moral 
tone,” and does a great deal of good in the 
world. 

SCAI,I,OWAY, 

Sheti^and Islands, 

1895- 




CONTENTS 


CHAPTER page 

I. The Antecedents of Patrick Onslow ii 

II. A Fortune for the Pair of us i8 

III. The Requirements of Mrs. Shelf 27 

IV. Business at a Ball 36 

V. Bimetallism 

VI. The Tempting of Captain Owen Kettle 55 

VII. 500, 000 — in Gold 66 

VIII. The Send-off 75 

IX. Ground-Bait 88 

X. Mutiny 100 

XI. To-Night Ill 

XII. A Dereliction 124 

XIII. Three for Twenty-seven 137 

XIV. A Pirates’ Harbor 147 

XV. Results in London 162 

XVI. For the Birthday List 170 

XVII. In the Matter of a Trust 184 

XVIII. The Plume-Hunters’ Dinner-Party 198 

XIX. Subjects for Matrimony 213 

XX. At Point Sebastian 224 

XXI. The Cyclone 235 

XXII. Mr. Shelf’s Little Surprise 250 

XX III. Decisions 263 

XXIV. A Flight and a Resting-place .... 277 

XXV. Closing Strands 288 

XVI. The Lucky Man 295 


s 


HONOR OF THIEVES. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE ANTECEDENTS OF PATRICK ONSLOW. 

Miss Rivers picked out the name of Patrick 
Onslow in the society paper which lay upon her 
knee, and drew idle circles round it with a pink 
ball-pencil. Fairfax tugged at his mustache, 
and returned to the subject which they had been 
discussing. 

“ The fellow has,” said Fairfax, “ a genial inso- 
lence of manner which seems rather taking with 
some people. But I confess I shouldn’t have 
thought him the man you would have cared to 
see twice, Amy.” 

You’re prejudiced, obviously ; and I’ve a good 
mind to say maliciously prejudiced. I don’t know 
how much you saw of him, because I can’t be 
invited to a Wanderers’ Club dinner; you don’t 
know how much I saw of him, because you missed 
some distant train and didn’t come here to the 
ball last night. But I’ll tell you : I saw all I 


12 


Honor of Thieves. 


could. He’s perfectly and entirely charming. 
He’s been everywhere, done everything, and he 
isn’t a bit blas^T 

I heard,” said Fairfax, “that Mrs. Shelf was 
lionizing Onslow round last night as the great 
traveler. Does he belong to the advertising 
variety of globe-trotter? Did he sit in a side 
room and hold a small audience spellbound with 
a selection from his adventures ? ” 

Miss Rivers shrugged her shoulders. “ Not 
he. But you know what Mrs. Shelf is when she 
gets any show person at one of her functions. 
The poor man had to stand it for a while, because 
she held on to him as though he might have been 
her fan. But he escaped as soon as he decently 
could by saying he wanted to dance. He asked 
me to give him the fourth waltz. I did it out of 
sheer pity, because I saw Mrs. Shelf’s thumb- 
screws were making him writhe.” 

“ ’Shows how little a man knows about the girl 
he’s engaged to. Now, I had always imagined 
that, having the pick of the men, you invariably 
wrote down the best dancers, and never saddled 
yourself with a stranger who was a very possible 
duffer.” 

Amy Rivers laughed. “ That’s generalizing. 
But it was different last night, because, so to 
speak. I’m a member of the household here. A 
ward counts as a sort of niece, doesn’t she ? •Or 


The Antecedents of Patrick Onslow. 13 

between that and an adopted daughter? But, 
anyway, it was out of sheer pity for Mr. Onslow 
in the first instance, and it was with distinct 
qualms that I let him take me down to dance. I 
quite intended, after half a round, to say the room 
was too crowded, and go and sit somewhere. 
That is to say, I made up my mind to do this 
when he asked me. However, when I dropped 
my fingers on his arm to go down-stairs, I had my 
doubts. You know after two seasons one gets 
instinctively to know by the first touch how a 
man will dance. And when he put his arm around 
me, and we moved to the music, I felt like going 
on forever. Waltzing is hard just now, because 
it’s in a transition state between two styles ; but 
his dancing was something to dream about. We 
started off with the newest quick waltz. Hamil- 
ton, it was just lovely ! He was so perfect that 
just for experiment I altered my step — by degrees, 
you know. Automatically, and without anything 
being seen, he changed too ; and we were dancing 
the old slow glide before I knew. And his steer- 
ing was perfect. In that whirling, teeming, tan- 
gled mob he never bumped me once. I gave him 
two more waltzes, and cut another couple in his 
favor.” 

Which makes five in all,” said Fairfax, rather 
stiffly. 

Amy Rivers took his hand and patted it. 


14 


Honor of Thieves. 


** Don't be cross, dear. You know how I love a 
good dance, and one doesn’t meet a partner like 
Mr. Onslow every day. I suppose he’s done his 
waltzing in Vienna and Paris, and Yorkshire, and 
New Orleans, as well as here in London ; and by 
averaging them all up he can’t help but be good.” 

** Is it from going to those places that Mrs. 
Shelf called him the Great Traveler? ” 

“ Of course not ! Hamilton, how stupid you 
are about him ! Why, he’s rummaged about in 
every back corner of the world, so they say.” 

“So they say, yes! Teheran to Timbuctoo. 
But what does he say himself about his wander- 
ings beyond the tram-lines? Shuffles mostly, 
doesn’t he ? And who’s met him anywhere ? 
Not a soul will come forward to speak. I tell you, 
Amy, there’s something uncanny about this 
Patrick Onslow. He turns up here periodically 
in London after some vague exploring trip to a 
place that isn’t mapped, and you can never pin 
him to tell exactly where he’s been. He comes 
with money, spends it en prince, and then goes 
off again, nominally perhaps to the Gobi Desert, 
and returns with another cargo.” 

“ How romantic ! ” said Miss Rivers. 

“ Yes, isn’t it ? ” said her fianc^ drily. “ If he’d 
lived a century earlier, one would have said he’d 
got a sound business connection as a pirate some- 
where West Indies way. As this year is eighteen 


The Antecedents of Patrick Onslow. 15 

ninety-three, and that explanation’s barred, one 
simply has to accept him as an uncomfortable 
mystery.” 

“ Hamilton, how absurd you are ! Wherever 
did all this rigmarole come from ? ” 

“ From the club, and London gossiping places 
generally. I suppose we ought to be indebted to 
Onslow for providing us with something to talk 
about.” 

“ But tell me ; if his antecedents are so queer, 
how is it he goes about so much here? He’s 
apparently asked everywhere — at least, so Mrs. 
Shelf says — and he knows everybody who’s worth 
knowing.” 

Fairfax laughed. Why does London society 
take up with an ex-bushranger from Australia, or 
a glorified advertising cowboy from the wild, wild 
West ? Simply because London society is ex- 
tremely parochial, and gets desperately bored 
with its own little self undiluted. Now, Onslow 
has undoubtedly wandered about outside the 
parish; and occasionally he lets drop hints which 
make one think he’s seen some queerish ups and 
downs in places where polite society doesn’t go ; 
and, in fact, he preserves a good-humored ret- 
icence about most of his doings. This makes 
people thoughtful and speculative. If a Chinese 
extradition warrant was to turn up to-morrow to 
arrest him for sticking up a three-button man- 


i6 


Honor of Thieves. 


darin beyond the Great Wall, nobody would be a 
bit surprised ; or if he were to tell the City this 
afternoon that he’d a concession for a silver 
mine in an unexplored part of Venezuela which 
he wished to dispose of at reasonable rates, we’d 
take it with pleased equanimity. Now, you know, 
Amy, there’s a fearful joy in entertaining a man 
of that stamp.” 

“ Especially when he’s as fascinating as Mr. 
Onslow can be when he chooses. And such a 
waltzer ! But you speak as if he was a savage 
from some back settlement, come into decent 
society for the first time. He isn’t that in the 
least. He’s a gentleman distinctly.” 

“ My dear Amy, I never meant to suggest that 
he was not. There’s no particular secret about 
his life. He comes of a good west-county family ; 
was a Harrow boy, and played in their eleven ; 
went through Cambridge ; and afterwards found 
a berth in the Diplomatic Service. Then, by way 
of variety, he got engaged to be married to a girl 
who jilted him ; on the strength of which he began 
to-run wild. He started on six months’ leave for 
a trip into Tibet, but he stayed beyond the limits 
of the postal system for two years and a half, and 
when he got back to England the Diplomatic 
Corps found that they could get on very well 
without him. So he continued his rambles. He 
doesn’t seem able to settle down.” 


The Antecedents of Patrick Onslow. 17 

“ That’s because he can’t forget the girl who 
threw him over,” exclaimed Miss Rivers. “ How 
awfully romantic ! I wonder who she was? She 
couldn’t have been anybody nice, or she wouldn’t 
have done it, because he’s a regular dear. And 
fancy his remembering her all this time ! I just 
love him for it.” 

“ Some fellows,” remarked Fairfax judiciously, 
“ would get jealous if the girl they were going to 
marry talked about another man this way.” 

Miss Rivers reassured him first practically, 
and then in words. “You goose ! ” said she ; “if 
I cared for him in that way, don’t you see, I 
shouldn’t have spoken about him to you at all.” 

Fairfax did not answer directly. He kissed 
her thoughtfully, and after a while he said : “ I’m 
not superstitious, dear, as a general thing. Work 
in a shipping office tends to make one painfully 
matter of fact. But for all that, I wish this fellow 
Onslow would either marry or get crumpled up 
in a cab accident, or have himself safely fastened 
down out of harm’s way somewhere. I’ve got a 
foreboding, Amy, that he’s going to do a bad 
turn either to you or to me — which means both 
of us. I know it’s absurd, but I can’t get rid of 
it.” 

“ How creepy ! ” said Amy Rivers. “ But 
what nonsense, Hamilton ! ” 


2 


i8 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER U 

A FORTUNE FOR THE PAIR OF US. 

Mr. Theodore Shelf’s carriage and pair drew 
up at the smartest house in Park Lane, and Mr. 
Theodore Shelf went up the steps and entered 
the door which a man servant opened for him. 
He was a stout, middle-aged man, with a clean- 
shaven face, and a short frock-coat of black broad- 
cloth. He allowed himself to be eased of his hat 
and umbrella, and then passed through the 
gorgeous hall to the rosewood billiard-room at the 
back. There he found his guest, Mr. Patrick 
Onslow, in shirt-sleeves, practising fancy shots by 
himself. 

“ What, alone, Mr. Onslow?” 

“ Why, yes. I did have a hundred up with 
your niece earlier, but some one came for her.” 

Niece ? Oh, Amy, you mean — Miss Rivers ? 
Ah, my dear sir ! from the love we have for her 
in this household, and the way we treat her, you 
naturally fancy she is a blood relation. It is a 
graceful compliment for you to pay, Mr. Onslow ; 
but it is my duty to correct you. Miss Rivers is 
legally only my ward.” 


A Fortune for the Pair of Us. 19 

“Ward? Oh, see that? Red hard against 
the cushion, and white bang over the bottom 
pocket. Neat cannon, wasn’t it, considering the 
long time since I’ve handled a cue ? ” 

“ The only child of my late partner. You 
know, the firm still stands as Marmaduke Rivers 
and Shelf. We call ourselves on the billheads, 
‘ Agents to the Oceanic Steam Transport Co.,’ 
though, of course, we really own the whole line. 
You see our flag, sir, in every sea.” 

“ I know. Nagasaki to Buenos Ayres ; gin 
and gunpowder on the West Coast ; coals and 
cotton at New Orleans.” 

“ And we do not send our steamers for the 
business of trade alone, Mr. Onslow. We pick 
our captains and officers with an eye to a holier 
purpose. We trust that they spread a Christian 
influence in all their ports of call,” observed 
Mr. Shelf unctuously. 

“Yes; I saw them at work once at Axim, on a 
tramp steamer you sent down there. They were 
taking Krooboys on board. The skipper received 
them on one of the bridge-deck ladders with a 
knuckleduster, and kicked ’em along. The chief 
stood by with a monkey-wrench and tickled them 
with that as they passed down to the lower deck 
aft. They mentioned at the time that this process 
had a fine Christianizing influence ; prevented the 
boys from being uppish ; showed ’em what the 


20 


Honor of Thieves. 


white man could do when he liked ; taught ’em 
humility, in fact. I say, there’s a pull towards 
this bottom pocket. People have been sitting on 
the table.” 

Mr. Onslow — Mr. Onslow, you are making a 
very serious accusation against one of my ship’s 
companies.” 

“Accusations? I? Never a bit of it. The 
fellows only acted according to their lights. 
That’s the only way sailor-men know of getting 
Krooboys to work ; and it was a case of squeez- 
ing the work out of them or having the natural 
sack from you. And so, as they didn’t know an- 
other method, they fell back on knuckleduster 
and monkey-wrench. I’ll play you fifty up.” 

Mr. Shelf put up a large white hand. “ No ; I 
don’t play billiards myself. So many young men 
have been ruined by the pursuit, that I refrain from 
it by way of setting an example. But my friends 
who visit here are not so scrupulous, and I have 
the table for them.” 

“ Beautiful ! ” said Onslow. He might have 
been referring to his own play, or to Mr. Shelf’s 
improving sentiment. 

“You see, Mr. Onslow, from my position, so 
many people look up to me that it is nothing 
short of my bounden duty to deprive myself of 
certain things, and be, so far as possible, a humble 
model for them to form themselves by. Long 


A Fortune for the Pair of Us. 21 


before a constituency sent me to Parliament, 1 
devoted my best energies to Christianizing the 
lower classes, and I hope not without success. If 
appreciation is any criterion, I may say that I was 
elected president of no less than twelve improve- 
ment societies. It took me much time and 
thought to attend to them. Yet I wish I could 
have given more.’' 

“Yes — that pocket does pull; there’s a regular 
tram-line towards it. H’m, mighty good work of 
yours. But doesn’t it sour on you sometimes? 
Don’t you want a day off occasionally ? A run 
down to Monte Carlo, for instance? ” 

“ Monte Carlo ! You horrify me, Mr. Onslow. 
You are my guest, and I cannot speak strongly; 
but this is a very poor jest of yours.” 

“ Well, perhaps you know best about that place. 
Monte Carlo is risky at the best of times for some 
folks, because you’re bound to meet crowds of 
people you know ; and if they aren’t on the razzle- 
dazzle too, and pinned to decent silence through 
their own iniquities, some of them are apt to split 
when they get home again. But I don’t know 
why you should be horrified, seeing that we are 
entre quatre yeux here, and not on one of your 
pious example platforms. You know you’ve been 
in a far hotter shop than Monte Carlo. — See me 
pot that red ? Ah, rouge Barcelona, to wit. 

If you remember, you were staying at the Cuatro 


22 


Honor of Thieves. 


Naciones, and at nights you used to cross the 
Rhambla, and ” 

“ Mr. Onslow, how did you know all this? ” 

“ Do you remember objecting to take a sheaf 
of obvious spurious notes, and there was a row, 
and somebody whipped out a knife, and some- 
body else floored the knife-man with a chair ? ’’ 

“ Yes — no.” 

After which you very sensibly bolted. Well, 
I had only just that moment come in, but I saw 
you were a fellow-islander, and that’s why I 
handled the chair. You don’t remember me, and 
I didn’t know your name, but I recognized you 
the moment your wife introduced us, because I 
never forget a face.” 

“You’re mistaken. I never was in such a place 
in my life, sir. Think of the position I occupy. 
Why, the thing’s absurd ! ” 

“ Now, my good sir, why waste lies? I’m not 
going to show you up. No fear. Why should 
I ? It would probably ruin you, and I should 
stand self-convicted of being in the lowest and most 
desperate gambling hell in Europe, without being 
made a sixpence richer by the transaction. Only 
you didn’t know me, and you thought I didn’t 
know you ; and I thought it would be handier if 
we were open about one another’s little ways at 
once before we went any further. Who knows 
but what we might be partners in some profitable 


A Fortune for the Pair of Us. 23 

business together?’’ Onslow put his cue down 
and faced his host, with hands deep in his trousers 
pockets. “ It’s worth thinking about,” he ob- 
served. 

Mr. Theodore Shelf stood before the fireplace 
and drew a handkerchief across his forehead with 
trembling fingers. “ What business do you refer 
to ? ” he asked at length. 

“ None whatever. I’m not a business man. I 
make discoveries and don’t know how to use 
them. You are a business man and may be able 
to see where the money profit comes in. If you 
can, why then we’ll share the plunder. If you 
can’t, we’re neither of us worse off than before.” 

But this is vague. What sort of discoveries ? 
Have you found a mine? ” 

No, sir ; in the present instance a channel ! ” 

“A channel ? — I don’t understand you.” 

A deep-water channel leading in to a certain 
coast, where everybody else supposes there is 
nothing but shallow water. The Government 
charts put down the place as partly unsurveyed, 
but all impossible for navigation. The upgrowth 
of coral, they say, is turning part of the sea into 
dry land. In a large measure this is true ; but at 
one point — which I have discovered — a river comes 
down from the interior, and the scour of this river 
has cut a deep narrow channel out through the 
reefs to the deep sea water beyond.” 


24 


Honor of Thieves. 


“ Well,” Shelf broke in, “ I see no value in that.” 

“ Wait a minute ! In confidence Til tell you it 
is on the West Coast of Florida — on the Mexican 
Gulf coast. The interior of southern Florida is 
called the Everglades. It’s partly lake, partly 
swamp ; built up of mangroves, saw-grass, cypress 
trees, and water ; tenanted by snakes, alligators, 
wild beasts, and a few Seminole Indians. Only 
one expedition of whites has been across it — or 
rather only one expedition known to history. But 
I’ve been there, right into the heart of the Ever- 
glades ; in fact, I’ve just come from there ; and I 
netted ;^iooo out of the trip.” 

‘‘ How ? ” asked Shelf, eagerly. 

“ Never mind exactly how. That’s partly an- 
other man’s business. Shall we say the other 
man gave me a commission there, and I carried 
it out, and got duly paid ? Anyway, that’s suf- 
ficient explanation. But now about this channel 
I’ve found. If one gives it to the chart people, 
they’ll simply say, ‘ Thank you,’ and publish your 
name in onenumber.of an official magazine which 
nobody reads. I don’t long for fame of that 
kind. I’ve the sordid taste to much prefer gold.” 

“ I think I understand you,” said Shelf. “ Give 
me a minute to think it out.” 

A week if you like,” said the other ; and, pick- 
ing up his cue, again returned to the billiard-table. 

The balls clicked lazily, and the rosewood clock 


A Fortune for the Pair of Us. 25 

marked off the seconds with firmness and pre- 
cision. Shelf lay back in his chair, his finger-tips 
together beneath the square chin, his eyes watch- 
ing the shadows which the lamps cast on the 
frescoed ceiling. He looked entirely placid. No 
one would have guessed the simmer of thoughts 
which were poppling and bubbling in his brain. 
A stream of projects came before him, flashed 
into detail, and were dismissed as impracticable. 
It was the great trait of this man’s genius that he 
could think with the speed of a hurricane, and 
clear his head of an unprofitable idea a moment 
after it was born. 

Twenty schemes occurred to him, all to be dis- 
missed : and then came the twenty-first ; and 
that stayed. He ran a mental finger through all 
its leading details : he conned over a thousand 
minutiae. It was the thing to suit his pur- 
pose. 

A bare minute had passed, but he needed no 
more time for his deliberations. The scheme 
seemed perfect to him, without flaw, without 
chance of improvement. The hugeness of it 
thrilled him like a draught of spirit. He was be- 
trayed away from his unctuous calm ; his hands 
dropped on to the arms of the chair. 

With a heavy start he clambered to his feet, 
strode forward, and seized Onslow by the arm. 

If your channel and Everglades will answer a 


26 


Honor of Thieves. 


purpose I want, there’s half a million of English 
sovereigns to be made out of it.” 

Onslow turned and faced him with a long, thin- 
drawn whistle. “ ;£‘500 ,ooo ! Phew ! ” 

“ Hush ! there’s somebody coming. But it’s 
to be had if you’re not afraid of a little risk.” 

“ I fear nothing on this earth,” said Onslow, 
“ when it’s to my interest not to fear. Moreover, 
though I’m not a saint, my standard of morality 
is probably a shade higher than yours. I don’t 
mind doing some sorts of dirty things ; but there 
are shades in dirtiness, and at some tints I draw 
the line. It’s dangerous to — er — have the tips 
of these cues glued on so badly. They fly off 
and hit people.” 

The billiard-room door had opened, and Amy 
Rivers had come in, with Fairfax at her heels. 
Hence Onslow’s digression. The matter had not 
been put in so many words ; but he felt sure that 
the commission of a great robbery had been pro- 
posed to him, and he had more than half a mind 
to drive his knuckles into Theodore Shelf’s lying, 
hypocritical face on the spot. 


The Requirements of Mrs. Shelf. 27 


CHAPTER III. 

THE REQUIREMENTS OF MRS. SHELF. 

Mr. Theodore Shelf wanted to drag Onslow 
off there and then to his own business-room, on 
the first floor, to discuss further this great project 
which he had in his head ; but Onslow thought 
fit to remain where he was. Mr. Shelf nodded 
significantly towards the new-comers, as much as 
to hint that a third person with them would be 
distinctly an inconvenient third. Onslow turned 
to them, cue in hand, and proposed a game of 
snooker. 

“That’s precisely what we came up for,” said 
Amy Rivers promptly. “ Hamilton, get out the 
balls. Mr. Onslow, will you put the billiard-balls 
away, so that they don’t get mixed ? ” 

They played and talked merrily. Their con- 
versation turned on the wretched show at the 
recent Academy, which they agreed was a dis- 
grace to a civilized country ; and Onslow made 
himself interesting over the art of painting in 
Paris — mural, facial, and on canvas. When he 
chose he could be very interesting, this man 


28 


Honor of Thieves. 


London had nicknamed “The Great Traveler ” ; 
and he generally chose, not being ill-natured. 

Mr. Theodore Shelf left the billiard-room with 
a feeling beneath his waistcoat much akin to sea- 
sickness. First of all, that plain-spoken Patrick 
Onslow had not over politely hinted that he was 
a canting hypocrite, and had showed cause for 
arriving at the conclusion. This was true, but 
that didn’t make it any the more digestive. And 
secondly, he himself, in a moment of excitement, 
had let drop to this same pernicious Onslow (who 
after all was a comparative stranger) a proposal 
to make the sum of ;^5oo,ooo at ontcoup. True, 
he had not mentioned the means ; but Onslow 
had at once concluded it was to be gained by 
robbery, and he (Theodore Shelf) had not denied 
the impeachment. 

Consequently Mr. Shelf went direct to his own 
room, locked the door, and fortified his nerves 
[with a liberal allowance of brandy. Then he 
tmunched a coffee-bean in deference to the blue 
ribbon on his coat-lapel, replaced the cognac 
pottle in the inner drawer of his safe, and sat 
[down to think. 

If only he understood Onslow, and, better still, 
knew whether he might trust him, there was a 
fortune to be had. Yes, a fortune ! And it was 
wanted badly. The great firm of Marmaduke 
Rivers and Shelf, which called itself “ Agents to 


The Requirements of Mrs. Shelf. 29 

the Oceanic Steam Transport Co./' but which 
really ran the line of steamers which traded under 
that flag, might look prosperous to the outer eye, 
and might still rear its head haughtily amongst 
the first shipping firms of London port. But the 
man who bragged aloud that he owned it all, 
from offices to engine-oil, knew otherwise. He 
had mortgages out in every direction, mortgages 
so cunningly hidden that only he himself was 
aware of their vast total. He knew that the firm 
was rotten — lock, stock, and barrel. He knew 
that through any one of twenty channels a break- 
up might come any day ; and, following on the 
heels of that, a smash, which would be none the 
pleasanter because, from its size and devastating 
effects, it would live down into history. 

He, Theodore Shelf, would assuredly not be in 
England to face it. Since his commercial barom- 
eter had reached “ stormy,” and still showed 
signs of steady descent, he had been transmitting 
carefully modulated doles to certain South 
American banks, and had even gone so far as to 
purchase (under a nom d'escroc) a picturesquely 
situated estancia on the upper waters of the Rio 
Paraguay. 

There, in case the tempest of bankruptcy broke, 
the extradition treaties would cease from troub- 
ling, and the weary swindler would be at well-fed 
rest. 


30 


Honor of Thieves. 


But Mr. Theodore Shelf had no lust for this 
tropical retirement. He liked the powers of his 
present pinnacle in the City. And that howl of 
execration from every class of society which 
would make up his paean of defeat was an opera 
that he very naturally shrank from sitting through. 

Ashe thought of these things, he hugged closer 
to him the wire-haired fox-terrier which sat upon 
his lap. 

“ George, old friend,’’ said Mr. Shelf, “ if things 
do go wrong, I believe you are the only thing 
living in England which won’t turn against 
me.” 

George slid out a red tongue and licked the 
angle of Mr. Shelf’s square chin. Then he retired 
within himself again, and looked sulky. The 
door had opened, and Mrs. Shelf stood on the 
mat. There was a profound mutual dislike be- 
tween George and Mrs. Theodore Shelf. 

‘‘You alone, Theodore? I thought Mr. On- 
slow was here. However, so much the better. 
I have wanted to speak with you all the morning. 
Do turn that nasty dog away ! ” 

George was not evicted, and Mr. Shelf inquired 
curtly what his wife was .pleased to want. She 
seldom invaded this business-room of his, and, 
when she did, it was for a purpose which he was 
beginning to abhor. She came to the point at 
once by handing him a letter, which was mostly 


The Requirements of Mrs. Shelf. 31 

in copperplate. He read it through with brief, 
sour comment. 

“H’m! Bank. Your private account over- 
drawn. That’s the third time this year, Laura. 
Warning seems to be no use. You are deter- 
mined to know what ruin tastes like.” 

“ Ruin, pshaw ! You don’t put me off with 
that silly tale. To begin with, I don’t believe it 
for an instant ; and even if it were true. I’d rather 
be ruined than retrench. You and I can afford 
to be candid between ourselves, Theodore. You 
know perfectly well that we have gained our 
position in society purely and solely by purchase.” 

To my cost I do know it. But having paid 
your entrance fee at least eight times over, I 
think you might be content with an ordinary sub- 
scription. The ball last night, for instance ” 

“ Was necessary. And I couldn’t afford to do 
the thing otherwise than gorgeously.” 

Gorgeously ! Do you think I’m a Croesus, 
Laura, to pay for gearing one room with red 
roses, and another room with pink, and another 
room with Marshal Niels for fools to flit in during 
one short night ? This morning’s paper informs 
me that those flowers came by special express 
from Nice, and cost five hundred pounds.” 

“ And yet 5/ou twit me with extravagance ! 
All the papers have got in that paragraph, as I 
took care they should ; and everybody will read 


32 


Honor of Thieves. 


it. Yet the flowers only cost a paltry three 
hundred pounds, so that in credit I am two hun- 
dred to the good, because I have clearly given 
the ball of the season. Theodore, you are short- 
sighted ; you are a fool to your own profit. By 
myself I shall make you a baronet this year, and 
if you had only worked in your own interests 
half as hard as I have done, you could have 
entered the House of Lords.’' 

Titles,” said Shelf grimly, “ for people of our 
stamp, are 'only given for direct cash outlay in 
almshouses, or picture galleries, or political clubs. 
Before they are bestowed, a Crown censor satisfies 
himself that one’s financial position is broad and 
absolutely sound. There are reasons connected 
with those matters which block you further and 
further from being ‘ milady ’ every day.” 

Mrs. Shelf shrugged her shoulders in utter un- 
belief. ‘‘Your preaching tendencies cover you 
like a second skin, Theodore. It seems as if you 
never drop the conventicle and the pleasure of 
pointing a moral at one. Believe me, is isn’t a 
paying speculation, this cant of yours. At the 
most they would only give you a trumpery 
knighthood for it. But go your own way, and 
I’ll go mine. You shall be made in spite of your- 
self.” 

Mrs. Shelf noticed that at this point her hus- 
band’s eyes were beginning to glow with dull 


The Requirements of Mrs. Shelf. 33 

fury. She objected to scenes ; and, dropping 
the subject, reverted once more to her present 
needs. 

“ However, let us stop this wrangle, and come 
to business. I wish you to see to that impertinent 
circular from the bank. I have several checks 
out, and unpresented ; I am absolutely com- 
pelled to draw others to-day, for trifles which will 
add up to about a thousand. You will kindly 
see that they are honored. It is all your own 
fault, this trumpery worry about nothing. You 
should not try and screw me down to such a nig- 
gardly allowance.” 

Shelf stood up, and the dog on his lap leaped 
hurribdly to the ground growling. “ Woman ! ” 
he said passionately, “ you won’t believe me ; but 
if you will go on in this mad extravagance, you 
will soon learn for yourself that I am not lying — 
perhaps very soon. Perhaps to-morrow. When 
a shameful bankruptcy does come, then you can 
play your hand as you please. I shall not be 
here to hinder you any longer. Where shall I 
go, how I shall lead my new life, who will be my 
partner, are matters which you will be allowed 
no finger in. So long as things last here, I shall 
observe all the conventionalities ; and, if you ap- 
preciate those, you will find it wise to reconsider 
your present ways. I tell you candidly that if 
the firm does go down, not only England, but 
3 


34 


Honor of Thieves. 


half the world will ring with its transactions. 
Marmaduke Rivers and Shelf,” he went on with 
scowling fury, “were honest, prosperous trades- 
men once, before their ways were fouled to find 
money for your cursed ambition.” 

There was a new look on Theodore Shelf’s 
clean-shaven face which his wife had never seen 
before, and an evil glint in the eyes which scared 
her. Irresolutely she moved towards the door 
and put her fingers upon the handle. Then she 
drew herself up and stared him up and down with 
a look of forced contempt. “You will be good 
enough,” she said coldly, “ to attend to the busi- 
ness which brought me here. I am going now to 
draw the checks I spoke about.” 

Shelf looked at her very curiously. “ Go,” he 
said, “and do as you please. You are a deter- 
mined woman, and, because I am determined 
myself, I admire your strength of will ; but for 
all that I think I shall murder you before I leave 
England.” 

Mrs. Shelf laughed derisively, but with pale 
lips ; and then she opened the door. 

“What fine heroics,” she said. “ But thanks 
for seeing after my balance. I must have that 
money.” 

She passed through the door, closing it gently 
behind her, and Shelf returned to his armchair. 

“George,” he said, as the fox-terrier stood up 


The Requirements of Mrs. Shelf. 35 

against his knee, if that woman were only struck 
dead to-day, there are two thousand families in 
England who would rejoice madly if they only 
knew one-tenth part of what I know. Poor beg- 
gars, they have trusted me to the hilt, and she 
makes me behave to them like a fiend. D’you 
know, my small animal, I wish very much just 
now an earthquake or a revolution or something 
like that would occur, to shuffle matters up. 
Then if I got killed I should be spared a great 
deal of worry ; and if I didn’t, why I’ve got 
large hands, and I believe could grab enough in 
the general scramble to suit even her. As it is, 
however, with neither earthquake nor revolution 
probable, I’m a desperate man, ready to take any 
desperate chance of commercial salvation. Eh, 
well ! ” he concluded, as he reached for a paper- 
block and rested it on George’s back, “ worrying 
myself about the matter won’t improve it. The 
only thing is to try and keep things running in 
their present groove.” He broke off and scrib- 
bled a Biblical text. Other men would have 
been suspected long before this. But my reputa- 
tion has saved me.” He smiled to himself softly. 
“ What a thing it is to be known as a thoroughly 
good man ! ^ . • 

He broke off at this point, and applied himself 
with gusto to writing his sermon for the ensuing 
Sunday. 


Honor of Thieves. 


D 


6 


CHAPTER IV. 

BUSINESS AT A BALL. 

When people are engaged, they usually con- 
trive to meet with frequency, and so Amy Rivers 
showed no very great surprise at seeing Fairfax 
again later in the evening. She only said : 

Why, I didn’t know you knew the Latchfords.” 
To which Hamilton Fairfax replied that he did 
not know them, but had met another man at the 
club who was coming to the party, and that the 
other man had brought him. 

An extra male never matters at a big dance,” 
said Fairfax. “ Besides,” he went on, “ I wanted 
particularly to see you this evening. Since we 
parted last. I’ve heard of an estate for sale in 
Kent which I fancy would just suit us. The 
present holder wants money, and therefore it’s 
going cheap ; but there’s another fellow after it, 
and I’ve only got the refusal till to-morrow morn- 
ing. So you see I want your views on the subject 
at once.” 

“ Very well,” said Miss Rivers ; “ you shall tell 
me about it in, say, three dances from now. 
There are no programs here to-night ; but I 


Business at a Ball. 


37 


have promised the next two waltzes and the 
square, and don’t particularly want to cut them. 
In the mean time, I wish you would go and talk 
to Mrs. Shelf. She said when we were driving 
here that she wanted to speak to you. I don’t 
know about what, but she’ll tell you that herself.” 

“ Right ! ” said Fairfax. “ Ta-ta for the pres- 
ent ! ” And he went through the rooms till he 
saw the blaze of diamonds and rubies which 
decked the handsome person of Mrs. Theodore 
Shelf. 

Mrs. Shelf had, as usual, a concourse of men 
round her. She was a woman who deliberately 
cultivated the art of fascination, because it was 
essential to her ambition ; and men are always 
willing to be dazzled and fascinated. They were 
laughing when Fairfax came up. She saw him 
from the corner of her eyes, but for the moment 
took no notice of him. She leaned forward and 
delivered another sentence to the men before her 
through the top feathers of her fan, which sent 
through them another thrill of merriment ; and 
then shut the fan with a click and turned to Fair- 
fax. 

The other men went away, still laughing, which 
was quite typical of Mrs. Shelf’s powers. She 
always concluded her audiences dramatically. 
No actress on the stage had more knowledge 
of how to bring about an artistic “ curtain.” 


38 


Honor of Thieves. 


She watched them go with a smile of mild 
triumph, but when she turned to Fairfax this had 
flitted away. There was distinct annoyance on 
her face. 

“Why don’t you know these people here?” 
she asked. 

“ Well, I suppose I may say that technically I 
do know Lady Latchford now. The chap who 
brought me introduced me to her. But of course 
she’ll have forgotten me by this time.” 

“ Then why didn’t you stop and talk to her — 
amuse her — or, better still, be impertinent to 
her? You ought to have known the Latchfords 
before. Indeed, I thought you did ; but to 
slip in like that, without a noise, was worse 
than a mistake — it was a crime. Don’t you 
know that the Latchfords are useful ? Really, 
Hamilton, you make me angry. You never 
make the slightest effort to get on, and know 
people who will be useful to you, and all 
that.” 

Fairfax felt half amused, half annoyed. He 
shrugged his shoulders. 

“ I don’t know what Amy will do with you 
when she marries,” Mrs. Shelf went on. “ You’ve 
no dash about you, no smartness. If you are left 
to yourself, you may make money, but you will 
never make a name.” 

“I’m not a man,” said Fairfax, with a half- 


Business at a Ball. 


39 

angry laugh, “ who would ever walk about in 
spurs and blow a trumpet.” 

“ No,” replied Mrs. Shelf ; “you would, if you 
had your own way, work ten hours a day in the 
City, and then come home and sleep. Once a 
month you would give a dinner party to City 
friends, and talk shop the entire evening. In the 
end you would die, and have written on your 
gravestone, ‘ This was a dull, honest man, who 
made a million of money and no enemies.’ Now 
I,” said Mrs. Shelf, “ should feel lonely beyond 
belief if I didn’t know that there were people who 
hated and feared me. It gives one the sense of 
power, and that means confidence ; and a woman 
with confidence gets on. It is only your harmless 
fool who is popular all round, and a person whom 
everybody in their innermost hearts despise, what- 
ever they may say of him aloud. You must 
shake this mood off, Hamilton. Begin now. Go 
up to the Latchford woman, and be imperti- 
nent to her. Say the floor’s so bad you can’t 
dance on it, or the supper’s poisoned you, or 
that there’s a woman here who picks pockets. 
Put it nicely, you know, and make it cut, and 
then she’ll ask you to her next function, because 
she’ll think you too dangerous to make an enemy 
of.” 

“ I don’t feel equal to the job,” said Fairfax. 
“It would probably end in my being kicked 


40 Honor of Thieves. 

there and then out of doors if I attempted such a 
thing.’’ 

“ Nonsense,” said Mrs. Shelf. “ Polite im- 
pertinence is the best possible cachet nowadays. 
And you must cut out some style for yourself. 
Go and begin now.” 

She dismissed him with a tap of her fan, and 
beckoned another man up. 

Fairfax went off willingly enough, but he did 
not go and impress himself upon his hostess’s 
memory by the crude process of baiting her. 
Instead, he hung about the rooms and idled away 
his time till Amy Rivers was ready for him, and 
then, slipping her arm through his, led her to a 
niche on a secluded staircase. 

“ Now,” she said, ‘‘ tell me all about this place 
in Kent.” 

He told her soberly and quietly all the details, 
and waxed dry over leases and repairs of outbuild- 
ings. 

“ It sounds lovely,” she said when he had 
finished ; but you don^t seem very enthusiastic 
over it yourself.” 

“ That’s not my way, dear. Mrs. Shelf has 
been telling me what a very dull young man I 
am, and suggested that I should commence im- 
proving matters by going up and insulting my 
hostess. I’m afraid I haven’t done it. To begin 
with, I couldn’t ; and to go on with, she’d squash 


Business at a Ball. 


41 


me out of existence with a look, if I made the 
attempt. You see, Amy, I know my limitations ; 
I’m a tolerably heavy person, with limited powers 
of speech, and a subdued sense of humor.” 

“ You might be brighter, that’s a fact,” Miss 
Rivers admitted candidly. 

If you are tired of me, dear ” 

Miss Rivers craned her neck down the line of 
the banisters, to make sure that no one was look- 
ing, and then drew Fairfax to her, and gave him 
a kiss. 

“ Don’t be a great goose ! ” she said. “ Only 
don’t think that I am going to agree with you in 
everything. That would be far too dull and 
copy-booky. And don’t think I imagine you 
perfect. I should hate you most cordially if you 
were.” 

“ What are my faults ? ” 

“ Do you think I could tell you the whole list 
in a single evening? No, sir. Some day, when 
I am more than usually annoyed with you, I will 
begin early and read out a chapter of them. Till 
then. I’ll bear with the lot. Tell me some more 
about this place in Kent.” 

“ I have told you all I know. If you like the 
idea, we might run down to-morrow and see it 
ourselves, before we finally decide on the pur- 
chase. The only thing is about the price. You 
know I’m a tolerably well-off man, dear, but there 


42 


Honor of Thieves. 


are limits to my capital, and most of it is well 
locked up. Of course this place has to be paid 
for in cash, which is the reason for its going so 
cheap.” 

“Well?” 

“ Well, I am afraid that alone it would not be 
wise for me to purchase it. But then one cannot 
get over the fact that you are an heiress — excuse 
my being unromantic and practical — and we are 
presumably not going to live on my income only. 
And so, if the house and its grounds should suit 
us, I was wondering whether you would feel dis- 
posed ” 

“ Oh, my dear child, how you do beat about 
the bush ! Of course I’ll help buy the place if 
we like it. Why shouldn’t I ? There’s heaps of 
money, and there’s no earthly reason why we 
shouldn’t use it.” 

“ But will the trustees let you have it ? ” 

“ I’m not of age for another year, but the trus- 
tees have discretionary power. At least, Mr. 
Shelf has, and he never thwarts me in anything. 
I believe he’d do anything for me. He is really 
the kindest man. If you like, Hamilton, I’ll see 
him about it before he goes out to-morrow morn- 
ing.” 

“ I think that will be best, dear. You see, in 
the present state of the offer, one has to rush 


Business at a Ball. 


43 


“ How much am I to ask him for ? ” 

“ Fifteen thousand pounds would do. I can 
manage the rest.” 

“ Oh, he’ll let me have that without any trouble 
at all. I’m sure of it. And if the other trustee 
was awkward, he’d advance it to me for the year 
out of his own pocket. Listen, there’s the music 
going again. Aren’t you going to dance with me 
to-night, Hamilton?” 

“Ye-es, a waltz, or anything like that. But 
they’re playing that abominable barn-dance. I 
think it’s idiotic. Makes such a show of one’s 
self. Let’s sit it out here.” 

‘‘Not I. I love the barn-dance. I do it well, 
and I dress for it. Consequently, my dear boy. 
I’m not going to miss it. You needn’t kick up 
your heels unless you like, but I warn you I’m 
going to disport myself. Come along, and take 
me down-stairs. There now ! you’ve ruffled my 
hair again.” 

“ Come along, then,” said Fairfax. “You can 
knock over my worst prejudices. I’ll dance two 
barn-dances with you if I get the opportunity.” 


44 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER V. 

BIMETALLISM. 

It was late in the evening when Patrick On- 
slow again found himself en tete-h~tetew\\\v his host. 
There had been people in to dinner at the house 
in Park Lane, but these had gone, and Mrs. Shelf 
and Amy Rivers followed them to Lady Latch- 
ford’s dance. Mrs. Shelf had wished to carry 
Onslow also in her train, but that person stayed 
behind by a request which he could not very well 
refuse. “You will favor me very much by re- 
maining here for the rest of the evening, Mr. 
Onslow,” Shelf had said in his pompous way. 
“ I have matters of the greatest moment which I 
wish to discuss with you.” 

“ I hardly know how to begin,” Shelf confessed 
uneasily, when they were alone. 

“ Then let me make a suggestion,” said Ons- 
low, with a laugh. “ Come to the point at once. 
Let’s have the plot without any introductory 
chapters. You’ve told me you’ve got a scheme 
on hand for turning my discovery into currency, 
and you’ve rather hinted that it’s a dirty scheme. 


Bimetallism. 


45 


The only question is, how dirty ? Thanks to 
pressure of circumstances, Tm not an over-par- 
ticular person ; but on points I’m very squeam- 
ish ; or, in other words, I draw the line some- 
where. Unless I’m very vastly mistaken, your 
plan will involve one in downright knavery, which 
is a thing all sensible men avoid if possible. Now, 
in my ignorance, I fancied the find might be 
turned to account without climbing down to that.” 

Oh,” said Shelf, eagerly, “ then you had a 
scheme in your head before you came to me?” 

The other shrugged his shoulders and lit a cigar. 
“ Just a dim outline, nothing more. You see, the 
interior of the Everglades is absolutely untouched, 
by the white man’s weapons. It was vaguely 
supposed to be one vast lake, with oases of slime 
and mangroves. The lake was reported as too 
shallow for boats, and abounding with fevers, 
agues, and mosquitoes. Consequently it remained 
unexplored, and on the end of the Florida penin- 
sula to-day no white man (barring myself and 
one or two others) has ever got further than five 
or eight miles in from the coast. Now, as I’ve 
told you, I was lucky enough to hit upon a fine 
deep ship-channel going in as far as the center* 
line, and I don’t know how far beyond inside. 
There is good fertile country, a healthy climate 
and the best game-preserve on this earth. For 
the first comers, that interior will be just a sports- 


46 Honor of Thieves. 

man’s paradise. My idea is two-wise. First sell 
the cream off the sport. Some men will give 
anything for shooting, and in this case there will 
also be the glamour of being pioneers. Each one 
will start determined to write a book of his 
opinions and doings when he gets back. By 
chartering a steamer and treating them well on 
board, they would have sporting de luxe^ and one 
ought to get quite five-and-twenty chaps at five 
hundred guineas apiece. That gives the first 
crop. For the second, buy up an enormous tract 
of the land, which can be got for half nothing 
— say ten or fifteen cents an acre — boom it, and 
resell it in lots to Jugginses. They’ll fancy they’ll 
grow oranges, as all Englishmen do who try 
Florida. Perhaps they may grow them : who 
knows, if they keep off whisky and put in work? 
But that won’t be the promoters’ concern. They 
don’t advertise that the land will produce oranges ; 
they only guarantee that it would if it was given 
a chance ; and that’s all correct. Perhaps this is 
rough on the Jugginses; but as they crowd these 
British Islands in droves, and are always on the 
lookout for some one to shear them, I don’t see 
why an Everglades Company shouldn’t have their 
fleeces as well as anybody else. They’re mostly 
wasters, and wouldn’t do any mortal good any- 
where ; and it’s a patriotic deed to cart them over 
our boundary ditch away from local mischief. 


Bimetallism. 


47 


Besides, even if the worst comes to the worst, 
and the orange industry of Florida still refuses to 
make headway, the would-be growers needn’t 
starve ; nor need they even do what they’ll proba- 
bly hate more — and that’s work. There’s always 
sweet potatoes and mullet and tobacco to be got, 
and if that diet doesn’t cloy, a man can have it there 
for mighty little exertion. Come, now. That’s 
the pemmican of the plan. What do you think 
of it ? ” 

“ Much capital would be needed.” 

Onslow shrugged his shoulders. “ Some, 
naturally, or I shouldn’t have come to you. If 
I’d seen any way to pouching all the plunder single- 
handed you may bet your life, Mr. Theodore Shelf, 
I shouldn’t have invited you into partnership.” 

“ Returns, too, would be very slow.” 

“Not necessarily. Float the company, and 
then turn it over to another company for cash 
down.” 

“ Moreover, when the — er — the young men 
you spoke about, found that the orange-groves 
did not produce at once in paying quantities, 
they would write home, and their parents would 
denounce me as a swindler in the newspapers.” 

“ No, not you ; the other company — the one 
you sold it to. But then apologists would arise 
to show that the Jugginses — don’t shy at the 
word, sir — were lazy and ignorant, and also that 


48 


Honor of Thieves. 


they absorbed the corn whisky of the country in 
excessive quantities. And then that company 
could grin smugly, and pose as a misunderstood 
benefactor. So its profits wouldn’t be smirched 
in the least. Grasp that ? ” 

“Yes, yes: I dare say you have worked it all 
out to yourself, and thought over the details so 
many times that the whole scheme seems entirely 
plausible. But looking at it from the view of a 
business man, I cannot say that it appears to be 
an enterprise I should care to embark in. You 
see it is so very much beyond the scope of my 
general operations that I — er — hesitate — er — you 

understand, I hesitate ” 

“Yes,” said Patrick Onslow, quietly, “you 
hesitate because you’ve got something ten times 
more profitable up your sleeve.” 

Shelf started, and shivered slightly. 

“You may as well be candid and open with 
me,” Onslow continued, “ and tell me what you 
are driving at. If it suits me, I’ll say so ; and if 
it doesn’t, I’ll let you know with surprising prompt- 
ness. And again, if we don’t trade, you may 
rely on me not to gossip about your suggestion. 
I’m not the stone-throwing variety of animal. 
You see I live in a sort of semi-greenhouse my- 
self.” 

There was a minute’s pause, during which 
Theodore Shelf shifted about as though his chair 


Bimetallism. 


49 


was uneven rock beneath him. Then he jerked 
out his tale sentence by sentence, squinting side- 
ways at his companion between each period. 

You know I’m a shipowner in a large way of 
business? ” 

Onslow nodded. 

“ Ships are occasionally lost at sea : steamers, 
even new steamers straight out of a builder’s 
yard, and well found in every particular.” 

“ So I’ve read in the newspaper.” 

“ And every shipowner insures his vessels to 
the full of their value.” 

“ Except when he has a foreboding that they 
will come to grief on a voyage. Then, so rumor 
says, he usually has the forethought to over- 
insure.” 

Mr. Theodore Shelf passed a handkerchief over 
his forehead, and started what was apparently a 
new topic. 

“ There is a silver crisis on just now in the 
United States, and by this morning’s- paper the 
dollar is down at sixty cents. American gold is 
not to be had. English gold is always worth its 
face value. What more natural financial opera- 
tion could there be than to ship out sovereigns, 
and profit by the discrepancy?” 

‘‘ Ah,” said Onslow, so the new and valuable 
steamer, which, though over-insured, is likely to 
be reported lost, is evidently to have a consign- 
4 


50 


Honor of Thieves. 


ment of specie on board. ;£'5oo,ooo I fancy you 
mentioned as the figure in the billiard-room this 
morning. Well, if one is going in for robbery — 
or piracy, I suppose it would turn out to be in this 
instance — there’s nothing like a large coup. It’s 
your niggler who usually fails, and gets laid by 
the heels. Drive on, and be a little more ex- 
plicit.” 

“ Couldn’t the steamer be lost somehow in the 
Gulf of Mexico, and a boat containing the boxes 
of specie find its way through this channel of 
yours into the interior of Florida ? ” 

“ How — lost ? ” 

Mr. Shelf mopped his forehead again. ‘‘ Don’t 
steamers,” he asked, “ don’t they sometimes 
have sad accidents which — which cause them to 
blow up ? ” 

“ Such things have been known. But it’s 
rather rough on the crew, don’t you think ? ” 

Oh, poor fellows, yes. But a sailor’s life is 
always hazardous. Indeed, what can he expect 
with wages at their present ruinous rate ? Ship- 
owners must live.” 

“ Oh, you beauty ! ” said Patrick Onslow. 

“ I must ask you,” cried Shelf with a sudden 
burst of sourness, to refrain from these com- 
ments, sir. But tell me, before I go any further 
in this confidence, am I to count upon your as- 
sistance ? ” 


Bimetallism. 


51 

“ That depends upon many things. To begin 
with, there’ll have to be modifications before I 
dabble. I’m not obtrusively squeamish about 
human life — my own, or other people’s. On 
occasion I bagged my man — because he had twice 
shot at me. Still, piracy, complicated with what 
practically amounts to murder, is an art which I 
haven’t trafficked in as yet ; and, curious to 
relate, I don’t intend to begin. Your scheme is 
delicious in its cold-bloodedness ; but it would 
look better if it were toned down a trifle. By 
the way, better help yourself to a drink. Your 
nerves are in such a joggle, that I fancy you’ll 
faint if you don’t. I notice there’s no blue ribbon 
on your evening dress. Humph ! That’s a 
second mate’s nip — four fingers, if it’s a drop ; 
apparently you are used to this. Tell me now, 
what honorarium do you propose I should take 
for engineering this piece of rascality in your 
favor ? ” 

“ I will give you five hundred pounds ! ” 

“ Now, would you, really ? Not even guineas ? ” 

“ Mr. Onslow, I’ll make it a thousand. 
There ! ” 

“ Mr. Theodore Shelf, when a monkey wants a 
cat to pull chestnuts for him out of the fire, he 
first has to be stronger than the cat. You don’t 
occupy that enviable position. In fact, I have 
the whip-hand of you in every way. We need 


52 


Honor of Thieves. 


not particularize, but you can sum the items for 
yourself. Now I’ll make you an offer. Half of 
all the plunder, and entire control of every- 
thing.” 

“ Great heavens ! do you want to ruin me ? ” 

“ I don’t care in the least if I do. Your welfare 
doesn’t interest me. But my services are on the 
market with a /r/a: fix^, and you can take ’em or 
leave ’em. That’s final.” 

Shelf burst into a torrent of expostulations ; 
exciting himself more and more as he went on ; 
till at last he stood before the other with gripped 
fists and the veins ridged out down his neck, in- 
articulate with fury. 

Onslow heard him out with a contemptuous 
smile, but when the man had stormed himself into 
silence, then he spoke, coolly and coldly : 

“ When one trades in life and death, the broker- 
age is heavy. You have heard my offer. If you 
don’t like it, say so without further palaver, and 
I’ll leave you now — with your conscience, if you 
have a rag of such a commodity left.” 

“You may sit where you are,” replied Shelf 
sullenly. 

“ Well and good. That means to say my terms 
are accepted. I’ll pin you to them later. But 
for the present let me observe to you something 
else, so that there may be no misunderstanding 
between us. I’ve been rambling up and down 


Bimetallism. 


S3 


the world half my life, and I’ve met blackguards 
of most descriptions in every iniquitous place, 
from Callao to Port Said — forgers, thieves mur- 
derers of nearly every grade of proficiency. But 
they say that the prime of everything gets to 
London, and I verily believe now that it does, for 
by Jove, you are the most pernicious scoundrel 
of all the collection ! ” 

“ Sir ! ” thundered Shelf, “ am I to listen to 
these foul insults in my own house? ” 

“ Oh, I quite understand the obligations of 
bread and salt ; but you are beyond the pale of 
that. You are a noxious beast who ought to be 
stamped out. Still you can be useful to me ; so 
I shall hire myself out to be useful to you. But 
I have brought these unpleasant facts under your 
notice, to let you thoroughly understand that I 
have summed you up from horns to hoofs, and to 
point out to you that I wouldn’t give a piastre 
for your most sacred word of honor. We shall 
be bound to one another in this precious scheme 
by community of interests alone ; and if you can 
swindle me, you may. Only look out for the 
consequences if you do try it on. I never yet 
left a score unpaid. We’re Arcades amho — rascals 
both ; only we’re different varieties of rascal. I 
know you pretty thoroughly ; and if you don’t 
know me as well, possibly you will before we’ve 
done with one another. And now, if it please 


54 


Honor of Thieves. 


you, we’ll go into the minuter details of this piece 
of villainy, and sketch out definitely how we are 
to steal this half a million in specie, and this valu- 
able steamer, without committing more murder 
than is absolutely essential to success.” 


Tempting of Captain Owen Kettle. 55 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE TEMPTING OF CAPTAIN OWEN KETTLE. 

“ If one might judge from the lacquered majesty 
of your office appointments,” said Patrick Onslow, 
taking one of the big chairs in Shelf’s inner sanc- 
tum, ‘-your firm is doing a roaring fine business.” 

Mr. Theodore Shelf seated himself before his 
desk and began sorting out some papers. “ The 
turnover,” he said evasively, “is enormous. Our 
operations are most extensive.” 

“ Extensive and peculiar,” commented Onslow. 

“ But I regret to say that during the last eight- 
een months the firm’s profits have seriously de- 
creased, and the scope of its operations been 
much hampered. I take credit to myself that this 
diminution could have been prevented by no ac- 
tion on my part. It is entirely the outcome of the 
times, and the lazy greed of the working classes, 
fomented by the frothings of paid agitators. The 
series of strikes which we have had to contend 
against is unprecedented.” 

“ Is it ? Well, I don’t know. There have been 
labor bothers all down through history, and I 


Honor of Thieves. 


56 

fancy they’ll continue to the end of time. If 
you’ll recollect, there was a certain Egyptian king 
who once had troubles with his bricklayers, and 
I fancy there have been similar difficulties trotting 
through the centuries in pretty quick succession 
ever since. Of course, each man thinks his own 
employes the most unreasonable and grasping 
that have ever uttered opinion since the record 
began ; that’s only natural. But I might point 
out to you that in definite results you aren’t in 
the worst box yet. Your chariot hasn’t been 
upset in the Red Sea so far, and it may be that a 
certain operation in the Mexican Gulf will grease 
up the wheels and set it running on triumphantly. 
Grumble if you like, Mr. Shelf, but don’t make 
yourself out to be the worst-used man in history. 
Pharaoh hadn’t half your opportunities.” 

^‘Yes, yes,” said Shelf, who didn’t relish this 
kind of conversation ; “ but we will come to busi- 
ness, if you please.” 

Right you are. Let’s finish floating the swin- 
dle.” 

“ Mr. Onslow ! ” exclaimed the other passion- 
ately, “ will you never learn to moderate your 
language ? There are a hundred clerks within a 
hundred feet of you through that door, and some- 
times even walls can listen and repeat. Besides, 
I object altogether to your phraseology. We 
engage in no such things as swindles in the 


Tempting of Captain Owen Kettle. 57 

City. Our operations are all commercial enter- 
prises.'’ 

‘‘Very well,” said Onslow, shrugging his 
shoulders; “don’t let’s squabble over it. You 
call your spade what you like, only I reserve a 
right to clap on a plainer brand. We’re built 
differently, Mr. Shelf. I prefer to be honest in 
my dishonesty. And now, as I’ve said, let’s get 
to business. You say the charter of this steamer 
of yours, the Port Edes, has expired, and she is 
back on your hands. She’s 2000 tons, built under 
Lloyds’ survey, and classed 100 Ai. She’s well 
engined, and has just been dry-docked. She’ll 
insure for every sixpence of her value without 
comment, and there’s nothing more natural than 
to send out your specie in such a sound bottom. 
Remains to pick a suitable complement.” 

“ I’ve got a master waiting here now by appoint- 
ment. His name is Kettle. I have him to a 
certain extent under my thumb, and I fancy he 
will prove a reliable man. He was once in our 
firm’s employment.” 

“ Owen Kettle, by any chance ? ” 

Mr. Theodore Shelf referred to a paper on his 
writing-table. “ Captain Owen Kettle, yes. He 
was the man who lost the Doge of Venice^ and 
since then he’s never had another ship.” 

“ Poor devil ! yes, I know. That Doge of Ven- 
ice case was an awful scandal. Owners filled up 


58 


Honor of Thieves. 


the Board of Trade surveyor to the teeth with 
champagne, or she’d never have been passed to 
sea. As it was, she’d such an unholy reputation 
that two crews ran from her before they could 
get her manned. She was as rotten as rust and 
tumbled rivets could make her, and she was sent 
to sea as a coffin ship to earn her dividends out 
of Lloyds’. Kettle had been out of a job for 
some time. He was a desperate man, with a 
family depending on him, and he went as skipper, 
fully conscious of what was expected of him. 
He did it like a man. He let the Doge of Venice 
founder in a North Sea gale, and, by a marvelous 
chance, managed to save his ship’s company. 
At the inquiry, of course, he was made scapegoat, 
and he didn’t contrive to save his ticket. They 
suspended his master’s certificate for a year. 
On the strength of that he applied to owners for 
maintenance, putting it on the reasonable claim 
of services rendered. Owners, being upright 
merchants and sensible men, naturally repudiated 
all knowledge or liability ; said he was a black- 
mailing scoundrel as well as an unskilful seaman ; 
and threatened him with an action for libel. 
Kettle, not having a solitary proof to show, did 
the only thing left for him to do, and that was 
eat dirt or subside. But the incident and the 
subsequent starvation haven’t tended to sweeten 
his temper. Latterly he’s been serving as mate 


Tempting of Captain Owen Kettle. 59 


on a Pacific ship, and he was just a terror with 
his men. He simply kept alive by carrying his 
fist on a revolver-butt. There isn’t a man who’s 
served with Red Kettle three weeks that wouldn’t 
have cheerfully swung for the enjoyment of mur-^ 
dering him.” 

“You appear to know a good deal about this 
man.” 

“ When it suits my purpose,” returned Onslow 
drily, “ I mostly contrive to know something 
about anybody. However, it’s no use discussing 
the poor beggar any longer. What’s amiss with 
having him in now ? ” 

Shelf touched one of the electric buttons which 
studded the edge of his table, and a clerk ap- 
peared, who went away again, and shortly re- 
turned. With him was a dried-up little man of 
about forty, with a red head and a peaked red 
beard, who made a stiff, nervous salaam to Mr. 
Theodore Shelf, and then turned to stare at Ons- 
low with puckered amazement. 

Onslow nodded and laughed. “ Been carrying 
any more pilgrims from Port Said to the Morocco 
coast on iron decks?” he asked. 

“ I never did that,” snapped Captain Kettle. 

“ Ah, one’s memory fails at times. I dare say 
also you forget a water famine when the con- 
denser broke down, and a trifling affray with 
knuckledusters and other toys ; and a dash of 


6o 


Honor of Thieves. 


cholera ; and nine dead bodies of Hadjis which 
went overboard ? Perhaps, too, you don’t re- 
member fudging a clean bill of health, and 
baksheeshing certain officials of his Shereefian 
Majesty ? ” 

“ No,” said Captain Kettle sourly, “ I don’t 
remember.” 

“ I’m going to forget it also, if you’ll prove 
yourself a sensible man, and deal amicably with 
Mr. Shelf and myself. Pm also going to forget 
that when you were shipping rice for Calcutta in 
’82 you rented mats you called your own to the 
consignor, and made a tidy penny out of that; 
and I shall similarly let slip from my memory 
a trifling squeeze of eight hundred dollars which 
you made out of a stevedore in New Orleans, 
before you let him touch your ship, in the fall 
of ’82.” 

“ You can’t make anything out of those,” said 
Kettle. They’re the ordinary customs of the 
trade.” 

“ Shipmasters’ perquisites for which owners 
pay ? Exactly. I know some skippers consider 
these trifles to be their lawful right. But a court 
o.f law might be ignorant enough to set them 
down as robbery.” 

“ I should like to know where you’ve got all 
these things from,” Captain Kettle demanded, 
facing Onslow, with his lean scraggy neck thrust 


Tempting of Captain Owen Kettle. 6i 

forth nearly a foot from its stepping. “ I should 
like to know, too, how you’re here ? I’d a fancy 
you were dead.” 

“ Other people have labored under that im- 
pression. But I’ve an awkward knack of keeping 
alive. You’ve the same. The faculty may prove 
useful to us both in the course of the next month, 
if you’re not ass enough to refuse ;^5oo.” 

“ Ho ! That’s the game we’ve got bent, is it? 
What old wind-jammer do you want me to lose 
now ? ” 

“ Sir !” thundered Shelf, lifting his voice for 
the first time. “ This is pretty language. I 
would have you remember that but a short time 
ago you were in my employ.” 

“And a fat lot of good it did me,” retorted the 
sailor. “ But,” he added, with the sudden recollec- 
tion that it is never wise of a master mariner to 
irritate any shipowner, “ but, sir, I wasn’t talking 
to you. I fancied it was Mr. Onslow here who 
was wanting to deal with me.” 

“ Then your fancy carried you astray, captain,” 
said Shelf. “ Come, come, don’t let’s get angry 
with one another. As I repeatedly impress on 
all who come in contact with me, there is never 
any good born out of words voiced in anger. 
Mr. Onslow has seen fit to mention a few of 
your — shall I say — eccentricities, just to show — 
er — that we understand one another.” 


62 


Honor of Thieves. 


“ To show he’s got his knife in me, Mr. Shelf, 
and can wraggle it if he chooses.” 

“ What a fractious pepper-box it is ! ” said 
Onslow, with a laugh. Man, dear, if I’ve got 
to be shipmate with you for a solid month, d’ye 
think I’d put your back up more than’s necessary ? 
If you remember me at all, you must know I’m 
the deuce of a stickler for my own personal com- 
fort and convenience. You can bet I haven’t 
been talking at you through gratuitous cruelty. 
But Mr. Shelf and I have got a yarn to bring out 
directly, which is a bit of a coarse, tough-fibered 
yarn, and we didn’t want you to give it a top- 
dressing of varnish. So, by way of safeguard, 
I pointed out to you that if we show ourselves 
to be sinners, you needn’t sing out that you find 
yourself in evil company for the first time.” 

Mr. Theodore Shelf had been shuffling his feet 
uneasily for some time. Onslow’s method of 
speech jarred him to the verge of profanity. His 
own saintliness was a garb which he never threw 
entirely away at any moment. His voice had 
always the oily drone of the conventicle. His 
smug hypocrisy was a perennial source of pride 
and comfort to him, without which he would have 
felt very lonely and abandoned. 

At this point he drew the conversation into his 
own hands. It had been said of him that he al- 
ways addressed the House of Commons as though 


Tempting of Captain Owen Kettle. 63 

he were addressing a congregation from the pul- 
pit of his own tin tabernacle, and he preached out 
his scheme of plunder, violence, and other moral 
uncleanness with similar fervent unction. Onslow 
was openly amused, and once broke out into a 
mocking laugh. He was never at any pains to 
conceal his contempt for Mr. Theodore Shelf ; 
which was more honest than judicious on his part. 

Kettle, on the other hand, wore the puckered 
face of a puzzled man. The combination of cant 
and criminality was not altogether new to him. 
Men of his profession are frequently apt to be- 
have like fiends unbooted at sea, and then grovel 
in clamorous piety amongst the pews of some 
obscure meeting-house during all their stay 
ashore. It is a peculiar trait ; but many a sea- 
scoundrel believes that he can lay up a stock of 
fire insurance of this sort, which will comfortably 
see him through future efforts. In Kettle’s mind, 
however, shipowners were a vastly different class 
of beings, and so it never occurred to him that 
the same might apply to them. 

In this attitude Captain Kettle listened to the 
sermon which was reeled out to him, and rather 
gathered that the project he was exhorted to take 
part in was in some obscure manner a missionary 
enterprise promoted solely in the honor and glory 
of Mr. Theodore Shelf’s own particular narrow 
little sect ; and had Mr. Shelf made any appre- 


Honor of Thieves. 


64 

ciable pause between his sonorous periods, Kettle 
would have felt it his respectful duty to slip in a 
humble “Amen.” But the dictator of the great 
shipping firm was too fearful of interruptions 
from his partner to give any opening for a syllable 
of comment. 

But if Captain Owen Kettle was unversed in 
the finer niceties of the art of hypocrisy, he was 
a man of angular common-sense ; and by degrees 
it dawned upon him that Mr. Shelf’s project, 
when removed of its top-dressing of religion, was 
in its naked self something very different from 
what he had at first been drawn to believe. 

As this idea grew upon him, the devotional 
droop faded from the corners of his lips, and his 
mouth drew to a hard, straight line, scarcely to 
be distinguished amongst the curving bristles of 
hair which surrounded it. But he made np^ inter- 
ruption, and drank in every word till the spieaker 
had delivered the whole of his say. Then he 
uttered his decision. 

“ So, gentlemen, you are standing in as partners 
over this precious business ? And because you 
know me to be a poor broke man, with a wife 
and family, you naturally think you can buy me 
to work for you off the straight. Well, perhaps 
that’s possible, but there are two ways of doing 
it, and of the two I like Mr. Onslow’s best. 
When a man’s a blackguard, it don’t make him 


Tempting of Captain Owen Kettle. 65 

swallow any the sweeter for setting up to be a 
little tin saint. And I don’t mind who I say 
that to,” 

“ My good man,” snarled Shelf, “ do you mean 
to threaten me ? ” 

‘‘ No, I don’t. I just gave you my own opinion, 
as from man to man, just because I respect my- 
self. But I’m not going round to your place of 
worship to shout it out to them that sit under 
you. They wouldn’t believe me if I did. Not 
now at any rate. Besides, it wouldn’t do me any 
good, and I couldn’t afford it. I’m a needy man, 
Mr. Shelf, as you have guessed ; and that’s why 
I’m going to accept your offer. But don’t let us 
have any misunderstanding between ourselves 
as to what it foots up to. What I’m going to 
sign on for directly, when you hand me the 
papers, is a spell of piracy on the high seas, neither 
more nor less. And I’m going to have my money 
all paid down in advance before I ring an engine- 
bell on your blasted tramp of a steamer. I guess 
that’s fair enough. My family’ll want something 
to go on with if I’m caught, because if one’s 
found out at this game it’s just a common ordinary 
hanging matter. Yes, sir, swing by the neck till 
I’m dead as an ax, and may Heaven have mercy 
on your miserable tag of a soul ! That’s what 
this tea-party means, and for your dirty ;f 500 
you’re buying a live human man.” 

5 


66 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER VII. 

;^500,000 — IN GOLD. 

The little red-bearded man had gone, slam- 
ming the door noisily behind him. Shelf mopped 
his large white face with a scented pocket-hand- 
kerchief. 

“ Do you think,” he said nervously — “do you 
think we may trust him ? ” 

“ To begin with, we’ve got to now, whether we 
like it or not. He’s nothing to gain by playing 
traitor.” 

“ But would he betray us in case of success ? ” 

“ Perhaps,” said Onslow, “ he won’t have the 
chance. Other hands on that steamer will have 
to share the secret in whole or in part. Perhaps 
they won’t all of them come through it alive. If 
you remember that we are plotting deliberate 
piracy on the high seas, you will recognize that 
there is precedent for a considerable percentage 
of casualties.” 

The City man shuddered. Through the double 
windows came the sullen roar of a London street, 


;^500)000— In Gold. 67 

and in imagination he seemed to distinguish the 
howl of the crowd joined in execration against 
him. 

His eye fell upon a paper on the desk. It was 
the formal notice from her bankers that his wife’s 
account was heavily overdrawn. He lifted the 
paper, and tore it with his teeth ; and then he 
smote the table with a shut fist, so that geysers 
flew from the inkwells. But his passion found 
no outlet in words. He spoke in his platform 
voice, and said nothing about the prime compel- 
ling force. 

“ We will not talk of these unpleasant details, 
if you please, Mr. Onslow. I — my heart is weak, 
I think, and they turn me sick. But at whatever 
cost, we must go through with the affair. It is 
necessary that I make a heavy coup within the 
next month, or the consequences may be 
disastrous.” 

“ Marmaduke Rivers and Shelf will go down ? 
Quite so. I’m also at the end of my cash balance, 
so that money seems to be the impelling power 
for each of us. But come now, wake up, sir, and 
let’s get on with the business. I’m not so sweet 
on this City atmosphere of yours that I care to 
spend another morning down here if it can be 
avoided. How are you going to raise the 
specie ? ” 

I’ll proceed about it at once,” said Shelf, 


68 


Honor of Thieves. 


pressing another of the buttons on his desk. 
“You may as well witness every step of the 
process.” 

In answer to the bell, Fairfax came into the 
room, nodded rather stiffly to Onslow, and turned 
to Shelf with an expectant : “ Yes, Sir ? ” 

In terse, business-like phrase his principal 
touched upon the silver crisis in America, and the 
gold famine in the Southern States. Then he ex- 
plained the external view of his projected enter- 
prise. 

“ The Port EdesJ' he said, “ is in the Hercu- 
laneum Dock, returned on our hands to-day. 
Wire Liverpool at once, asking for freights to 
Norfolk Virginia, Pensacola P'lorida, Mobile 
Alabama, or New Orleans, at lowest rates. New 
Orleans is her final port, and offer that at fifteen 
per cent. less. Captain Owen Kettle will be in 
command, and he sails in four days from this. 
When you have deputed your clerks to do this, 
go yourself to the bank and negotiate for half a 
million in gold, to be delivered on board t\iQ Port 
Edes in dock. The insurance policy on the 
money will be deposited with the bank to secure 
them in full for the loan itself, and for their other 
charges the credit of the house will easily suffice. 
Is that clear ? ” 

“ Perfectly,” said Fairfax ; but I should like to 
remind you of one thing: wharf thefts at New 


;f5oc),ooo— In Gold. 69 

Orleans are notorious, and you’ll have to pay 
heavily to insure against them.” 

I know — more heavily than for risks across 
the ocean ancj the run up the river. Under- 
writers are justly nervous about those all-nation 
thieves. But in this, instance I propose to save 
myself that fee, and insure in a different way. 
Mr. Onslow is going out on the Port Edes ex- 
pressly as my representative, and I fancy that he 
and the captain together will be capable of see- 
ing to safe delivery. The ship’s arrival will be 
reported by telegraph from the pass at Missis- 
sippi Mouth, and my New Orleans agent can 
calculate her appearance alongside the levee to a 
quarter of an hour. He will meet her with vehi- 
cles and a strong escort of deputy-sheriffs as she 
brings in to her berth, and will take the specie- 
boxes off by the first gangway which is put ashore, 
and carry them straight to a bank. Does this 
strike you as a sound course ? ” 

“Yes,” said Fairfax thoughtfully; “ I see no 
undue risks. By the way, as the Port Edes is 
merely a cargo tramp, and doesn’t hold a certifi- 
cate for passengers, I’m afraid the Board of Trade 
would not let Mr. Onslow travel by her simply as 
the firm’s representative. But that could be easily 
overcome.” 

“ Oh,” said Onslow, “ I’ll sign on articles in the 
usual way as one of the ship’s company — as fourth 


70 


Honor of Thieves. 


mate, say, or doctor, with salary of one shilling 
for the run. ’Tisn’t the first time that pleasing 
fiction has been palmed upon a shipping-master. 
It doesn’t deceive any one you know, because 
the rate of wages gives one away at the outset. 
But the country’s paternal, mutton-headed ship- 
ping laws are obeyed, and so everybody’s pleased.” 

Fairfax laughed and went into the outer offices, 
and Patrick Onslow turned to the shipowner with 
a couple of questions. 

“To begin with,” he said, “why did you offer 
freights to Norfolk, and Pensacola, and Mobile, 
and those places ? If you call in there, the natural 
thing would be to get the specie ashore and express 
it by railroad direct to New Orleans. If you miss 
that chance, and start carrying it round by sea, 
the thing looks fishy at once. Now, fishiness is 
an aspect which we can’t afford in the very least 
degree. The swindle will call up enough sensation 
in its most honest and straightforward dress.” 

“ My dear Mr. Onslow, please give me credit for 
a little more finesse. I see the objection to inter- 
mediate ports as much as you do, but I merely 
mentioned them to Fairfax as a blind. To begin 
with, it is a hundred to one chance against our 
getting any cargo at all consigned to them at this 
season of the year, even if we offered to carry it 
gratis. In the second place, if it was offered, I 
could easily get out of it in fifty ways. Afterwards, 


;£‘ 5 oo>ooo — I n Gold. 71 

when the deplorable accident takes place, an in- 
quiry into this will help to draw off attention from 
your Floridan Peninsula. Any one inclined to carp 
will instantly be told that we were equally ready 
to put the specie ashore on the Virginian coast if 
our other cargo had led us there. What do you 
think of that now ? ” 

“ Beg your pardon. That’s clear-sighted enough, 
and should work correctly. But I fancy my other 
objection .is better founded. What in the name 
of plague did you go and economize over insur- 
ance for? Why didn’t you get the stuff under- 
written slap up to the strong-room of the bank? ” 

“To save ^^"500. If you aren’t going past the 
middle of the Mexican Gulf, what is the use of 
wasting money by insuring further ? ” 

“ in a deal of ;^5oo,ooo ! A mere straw in 
a cartload ! ” 

“ That, my dear Mr. Onslow, is business. As 
I often assure my young friends commencing 
life, if one takes care of the pennies, the pounds 
will take care of themselves. It is by looking after 
what you are pleased to consider trivial sums like 
these that the firm of Marmaduke Rivers and 
Shelf has risen to its present eminence.” 

“Oh, wind!” retorted Onslow. ‘‘Don’t tell 
me ! ” 

“ Sir ! ” exclaimed Shelf. 

“ Well, if you will have it, the eminence appears 


Honor of Thieves. 


72 

to be uncommon tottery, and because of your 
miserable meanness you’re doing your best to 
bring it over. It’s just trifles like this that tell. 
Consider what will happen after the catastrophe. 
There’ll be an inquiry that will lay everything bare 
down to the very bed-plates. Do you think they 
won’t jump on this point at once? The stuff is 
fully insured up to New Orleans ; it isn’t insured 
on the levee, and in the streets, where the thefts 
are notorious. Doesn’t this drop an instantaneous 
hint that it was never intended to get so far? ” 

“ No,” said Shelf sourly. “I don’t see that it 
does.” 

“ Then,” retorted Onslow, “ I differ from you 
entirely ; and as I’m to be the active agent in 
this affair, and have to take the first and gravest 
physical risk, I do not choose to have my retreat 
unnecessarily hampered. I must insist upon your 
recalling Fairfax for additional instructions. 
What extra insurance has got to be paid.” 

“ Then pay it yourself,” angrily exclaimed Mr. 
Shelf. 

“ That’s outside the bargain. Working ex- 
penses are your contribution to the partnership. 
And besides, for another thing, I couldn’t plank 
down that money if I wished. I haven’t it in the 
world.” 

“ Mr. Onslow, I believe you. Will you extend 
the same courtesy to me when I tell you that if I 


73 


;f500j000 Gold. 

were to attempt raising even such a trivial sum as 
;f500 to-day it would precipitate me into bank- 
ruptcy to-morrow.” 

“ Whew ! Are you nipped as badly as all that ? ” 

“ I have a remorseless drain on me which drinks 
up the profits of this business like a great sponge. 
It is a domestic drain, and I cannot resist it.” 

“You poor beggar!” said Onslow, with the 
first scrap of sympathy he had yet shown to his 
partner. “ I believe I understand, and it tones 
down your dingy color. Y ou aren’t quite all black. 
I believe by your own painting you’re only a mod- 
erate sort of gray. And if I’ve been beastly rude 
and hard with you, because I’ve considered 
you a soapy scoundrel playing entirely for your 
own hand. I’ll apologize to you. That isn’t in 
the least polite, but I think it’s plain, and perhaps 
we shall get on together better now. But about 
this bankruptcy. It’ll be rather a mess if you go 
smash before our Florida operation realizes its 
profits. It will thicken the inquiry, you know, to 
a very unpleasant keenness.” 

“ I think I shall keep on my feet, Mr. Onslow. 
I trust, I pray I shall ; and, moreover, I thank you 
for what you have said. I do confess that your 
manner of speech has wounded me much at 
times.” 

“ Oh, as to that,” returned Onslow, “ I mostly 
say ‘ spade ’ when I mean it, and I don’t care to 


74 


Honor of Thieves. 


mix religion with theft, when Fm talking with a 
co-conspirator. But I fancy we understand one 
another more comfortably now, and Fll leave you 
to make the rest of the arrangements here in Lon- 
don. This afternoon Fll pick up Kettle and run 
down to Liverpool and get things in hand there. 
They’ll require care. To begin with, there’s a 
suitable armament to be smuggled on board with- 
out advertisement. And there are other nefari- 
ous preparations to be made. Piracy on the high 
seas is not a thing to be undertaken lightly nowa- 
days ; nor is murder.” 

Oh, heavens ! ” cried Shelf, “ don’t speak of 
these horrors.” 

I speak of them,” replied Onslow grimly, 
“ because it is right that you should understand 
what will probably be done. I don’t intend to 
redden my fingers if it can be avoided ; but as I 
put my neck in jeopardy, failure or no failure, I 
naturally don’t intend to hesitate at any action 
which will bring unqualified success. Only 
understand fully, Mr. Theodore Shelf, that piracy 
you are already an active sharer in, and if there’s 
murder done to boot, you will be as guilty as the 
worst, even though you sit here in your snug 
London offices whilst other rougher men are 
handling pistol and knife in the Gulf or in a 
Floridan mangrove swamp.” 


The Send-off. 


75 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SEND-OFF. 

The Port Edes had gained the name of an un- 
lucky ship. She had slain three men in her 
building ; she had crushed another to death the 
day before she left the slips ; and, though only 
three years in the water, she had already maimed 
enough hands from various crews to make her a 
full complement. Some vessels are this way ; 
from no explainable cause there seems to be a 
diabolic fatality about them. 

It is not to be supposed that sailormen rush to 
join a craft of this sinister reputation. Although 
they are called asses in the bulk, they are only 
asses in part. They always try for the best berths 
first. But because there are not enough of these 
to go round ; and because, thanks to the Dago 
and the Dutchman, there are not sufficient berths 
of any sort whatever to supply all aspirants ; it is 
always possible to man any vessel which a Board 
of Trade official will pass through a dock gates. 

Just as no man is ever successful in anything 
without due cause, so per contra few sailormen 


Honor of Thieves. 


76 

are down on their luck except through some 
peculiar trait of incapacity. So that on your un- 
popular ship, be she tramp-steamer, or eke weep- 
ing wind-jammer, you do not get much pick of a 
crew. You have to put up with what other peo- 
ple have left, and it does not take you long to 
learn that your beauties have not been rejected 
for their excellences. 

It was this way on the Port Edes. Forward and 
aft, engine-hold and pantry, each man on board 
of her had his private sea-failings. Between, them 
they lacked wakefulness, eyesight, decision, 
strength of fist, strength of language, seamanship, 
and common sobriety. Amongst the deckhands 
there were virulent sea-lawyers ; in the stokeholds 
there was dmes damndes wanted by several Govern- 
ments. The engineers were skilful in gaining the 
smallest possible knottage per ton of coal ; the 
mates were all slipshod navigators, untrustworthy 
even to correct a compass and useless to drive a 
truculent crew. 

Over all was Owen Kettle, master mariner. 
Whatever his failings might be (and the index of 
them tailed out), they did not show prominently 
at the head of such a ship’s company. Like all 
men in the merchant marine, he had been bred in 
the roughest school ; but, unlike his successful 
brethren, he had not graduated later on to the 
smooth things of a well-manned passenger liner. 


The Send-off. 


77 

For his sins he had remained the pitiful knock- 
about skipper, a man with knife-edged words 
always ready on the lip of his teeth, a leaden 
whistle in one jacket-pocket, and a lethal weapon 
in the other. He was an excellent seaman and 
navigator — a man capable of going an entire voy- 
age without taking off his clothes or enjoying one 
watch of regular sleep. Whilst in command at 
sea, he credited himself with the powers of a Czar, 
and was entirely unscrupulous in gaining ends 
which expediency or his owners laid down for 
him ; and though not physically powerful, he 
had the pluck of a dog, and an unholy reputation 
for marksmanship. Taking into allowance these 
qualifications, it may be understood that for the 
handling of such a menagerie of all-nation scoun- 
dreldom and incapacity as bunked in the s. s. 
Port EdeSy no better man than Owen Kettle 
breathed in either hemisphere. 

The crew signed their marks on the articles at 
the shipping office in the Sailors’ Home, and 
went off grumbling to get rid of their advances. 
Later, most of them turned up on the steamer ; 
some with their worldly goods done up in dunnage 
sacks (which look to the uninitiated like pillow- 
slips) ; some apparently possessing nothing but 
the squalid raiment they stood up in. There was 
not one of them dressed like a sailor, according 
to the conventional idea, yet most of them had 


Honor of Thieves. 


78 

made their bread upon the seas since early boy- 
hood, which shows what conventional ideas are 
sometimes worth. They were most of them 
oldish men, and looked even older than their 
years. 

The engineers came on board early, for the 
most part in scrubby blue serge, and sour black 
temper. They grumbled at the mess-room in 
broad Glaswegian, prophesied evil (in advance) 
about the capacities of the mess-room steward 
and the ship’s cook, dumped their belongings into 
their various rooms, and changed to apparel more 
suitable for tail-twisting in the unclean regions 
below. Then they went on duty, quarreled with 
the donkeyman who was making steam for the 
winches, and proceeded to split up their crew of 
firemen and trimmers into watches, and apportion 
them to furnace doors and bunkers. 

The three mates, the boatswain, and the car- 
penter were also on board betimes, most of them 
large-headed with recent libations, and feeling 
cantankerous accordingly. There was a small 
general cargo being shipped for New Orleans, and 
it gave these worthy officers ease to find occa- 
sional acid fault with the stevedore’s crew or the 
crane men on the wharf ; but, for the most part, 
they shuffled about the decks in easy slippers, at- 
tending to the various ship duties in massive 
sneering silence. 


The Send-off. 


79 

Patrick Onslow came into the chart-house on 
the bridge-deck, closing the door behind him. 

A cheery, amiable crowd you’ve collected,” he 
said. 

“ Aren’t they ? ” replied Captain Kettle from a 
sofa locker. They’re just a terror of a crew. 
You wait till we get to sea, and they start on 
mischief. My mate’s a cur; he wouldn’t stand 
up to a Chinaman. And the rest of the after- 
guard is much of a pattern — picked that way on 
purpose. Oh, I tell you, Mr. Onslow, that I 
stand alone, and I shall have my hands full. But 
let ’em start, the brutes. I’ll haze them. It isn’t 
a new sort of tea-party, this, with me.” 

“You’re going into it with your eyes open, 
anyway.” 

“ Oh don’t you make any error, sir,” said Ket- 
tle. “ I know my job. And if I warn you, it’s 
because you’ll see things for yourself, and perhaps 
join in at them. I don’t go and tell everybody. 
Not much. They think ashore I’ve got a real 
soft thing on this time. Why, do you know, Mr. 
Onslow,” he added, with a thin, sour grin, “ my 
old woman wanted to come with me for the trip. 
She said it was so long since she’s had a whiff of 
outside air, that now I’d such a tidy steamboat 
under me, she couldn’t miss the chance. Yes, 
sir ; and she said she’d bring one of the kids with 
her that wanted to be a sailor, like his daddy ! I 


8o 


Honor of Thieves. 


tell you, she was that took on the idea she’d hear 
no refusal ; and I had to write a letter to owners, 
and get them to wire back a ‘ No ’ she could read 
for herself. It’d look well set to music, that tale, 
wouldn’t it? Sort of jumpy music, you know, 
with a yo-heave-humbug chorus to it, same as all 
sailors’ songs have that you hear in the halls.” 

Onslow shrugged his shoulders. “ What can 
you expect at the price ? ” he asked. “ This 
isn’t a twelve-pound-a-month berth ; and you’ve 
threshed across the Atlantic in a worse ship for 
less.” 

Don’t you mistake me,” retorted Kettle. 
“ I’m working for full value received ; and there’s 
many an old sailor’d like to be in my shoes, if he 
only knew. I’m not grumbling at the berth, only 
when a man’s on a racket of this kind, it’s a bit 
hard on him to have a wife and kids he’s fool 
enough to be fond of. It’s an ugly amusement, 
lying to them like a play actor, when you know 
it’s ten chances to one you’ll never see English 
mud again. That’s the way it cuts, though I 
suppose you'll think it all a sailor’s grumble. 
Perhaps you aren’t a married man ? ” 

“ No ; I’m not.” 

“ But you’ve got people who care for you ? ” 
Onslow gave the ghost of a smile, and then 
laughed. “ No,” he said, “ I can’t even boast of 
that. Acquaintances are mine in thousands ; but 


The Send-off. 


8i 


friends — well, all friendship has its breaking 
strain. I’m a bit like that comfortable, contempti- 
ble person, the Miller of the Dee. I believe I 
did care for somebody once ; and she made me 
think she cared for me. Probably she lied, be- 
cause, under persuasion, she went off with another 
man. Bah ! though, what does it matter? Kettle, 
we’re talking rank sentiment, and that’s an un- 
profitable employment for men engaged on a 
piece of delicate business. And — here’s a gentle- 
man come to tell me that the consignment of 
specie is just commencing to arrive. Now, cap- 
tain, the stuff’ll be in iron-bound boxes, and you 
and I have got to weigh each one separately, and 
check the invoice. Then we’re to act as our own 
stevedores, and stow half of it in the cabin next 
my room, and half of it across the alley-way next 
the mate’s.” 

Why divide it ? ” 

“ Because the weight is big, and it would give 
your steamer a heavy list to starboard.” 

“ Oh, as to that, never mind. We can easily 
bring her up again with a trimming tank ; and I 
shouldn’t feel comfortable if any of the stuff was 
in that room next the mate’s. You see, Mr. 
Onslow, any one on board can go down that alley- 
way. In fact, it’s the only road from end to end 
of the ship, unless you go up over the bridge 
deck. And I’d not guarantee but what the bait 

6 


82 


Honor of Thieves. 


wouldn’t make some of them beauties try and 
tamper with the door. It’s big enough to smudge 
the honesty of an archbishop, if he was only 
earning four pounds a month. Now, the room 
next yours has iron walls, and opens only into 
the inner cabin. There’s a good lock on it 
already, and if I make the carpenter bend on 
four more, you’ll have a strong-room the Bank of 
England might boast about.” 

That sounds sensible,” commented the envoy 
from the bank. 

“ Very well,” .said Onslow, I believe it is the 
best plan. Now, if you please, we’ll have the 
weighing-machine in the main cabin, and if you, 
sir, will instruct your men to bring in the boxes 
one by one, I’ll satisfy myself that they agree 
with the tally, and Captain Kettle shall build 
them up in the state-room before us both. It’s 
a very responsible job we have upon us, and the 
more counter-checkings and precautions we can 
put into it the better for our several reputa- 
tions.” 

It was a responsible job. Not every day is 
specie to the tune of half a million British sover- 
eigns shipped from a Liverpool dock ; and be- 
cause gold-boxes are made in a conventional 
pattern, the shipment was spotted, and crowds 
gathered to stare at the cased-in wealth. 

As staring dumbly is dry work, self-appointed 


The Send-off. 


83 

orators amongst the crowd naturally distributed 
gratis their own private opinions upon the situa- 
tion ; and, according to their luck or eloquence, 
these attracted larger or smaller audiences. 
No one took them very seriously, and they for 
the most part treated the subject in a jocular 
vein. It was not till Captain Kettle and the 
Mersey pilot had gone on to the upper bridge, 
and the mate on the fore-deck had cast off the 
first bow-fast, that a prophet arose who spoke of 
the gold shipment in another key. 

He was a wild, unkempt, knock-kneed man, 
who attracted first attention by tying a crimson 
handkerchief to an umbrella and brandishing it 
above his head. Being on the face of him a 
creature who never, if he could avoid it, put his 
hand to honest labor, he naturally addressed the 
crowd at large as “ Fellow workers.” These 
things awoke a slight humorous interest ; and 
because the man had the gift of glib and striking 
speech, the crowd continued to listen after the 
first pricking up of their ears. 

The man’s discourse need not be reported in 
detail. He was an anarchist, red, rampant, and 
ruthless ; and by means of arguments, some 
warped, some fair enough, he pointed out to his 
hearers that the mission of the Port Edes was 
another knife-thrust of capital into the ribs of 
labor. The statement met with a very mixed 


Honor of Thieves. 


84 

reception, but the anarchist silenced both, the 
jeers and the applause with a beseeching wave of 
his hand, and followed along the curb of the 
wharf the steamer, which was commencing to 
float towards the dock gates. He spoke to those 
on board her now rather than to his more im- 
mediate following, and unclean faces stared at 
him from over the line of bulwarks. 

“ To any man of you who values life,” he cried, 
“ I offer a solemn warning. That ship is doomed ; 
she will sink in mid-ocean, blown apart by our 
petards, and her ill-gotten cargo will be hurled 
out of capital’s reach forever. Those who are 
misguided enough to be her guardians will be 
blown into space. Listen, you men of her crew. 
Jump on the pierhead yonder as she passes into 
the basin, and take the consequences. The brutal 
laws of this country will hurl you into prison ; 
but better a season dragging out a martyr’s sen- 
tence, than death as an enemy to the workers’ 
cause.” 

At this point the strong right hand of the law 
descended on to the speaker’s elbow ; and then, 

■ because he attempted to resist, the willing right 
knee of the law jerked up suddenly into the small 
of that anarchist’s back ; after which he was haled 
ignominiously to a police-station, and the place 
of his speaking knew him no more. 

But the fellow’s threats had not been without 


The Send-off. 


85 

their result. Every hand on the Port Edes deck 
had heard them distinctly, and disquiet arose 
under the belts of nine out of ten. The mates 
grew nervous and the men inattentive ; and, from 
the bridge. Captain Kettle’s voice and whistle 
kept ringing out with biting clearness. As it was, 
only one man attempted to put the warning into 
practical effect. He was a miserable, half-clad 
wretch, a coal-trimmer by rating, already repentant 
of the spell of physical toil which he had signed 
on for. 

Passing through the lock-gates into the hasin, 
the steamer’s port quarter swung gently towards 
the wall. A sailor, in readiness, dropped from 
above and ran aft with the lanyard of a cork 
fender. The trimmer jumped on the bulwarks, 
and one might have thought that he was going 
to bear a hand — an unnecessary hand. The sailor 
did so, and cursed him for his officiousness. The 
donkeyman, however, who was oiling the after- 
winch, had other ideas on the subject, and stood 
by for a rush. So it befell when that trimmer was 
getting himself ready for a spring back on the 
quay-head, the donkeyman’s long legs took him 
rapidly across the red iron decks, and when the 
trimmer was already in mid-air, the donkeyman’s 
huge paw descended upon the slack of his black 
breeches, and drew him back as though he pos- 
sessed the weight of a feather pillow. Whereat 


86 


Honor of Thieves. 


the crowd at the pier-head yelled with delighted 
laughter, and the dingy steamer made her way 
stolidly on to the muddy waters of the Mersey 
ebb, which bubbled against the lip of the walls 
beyond. 

“ Curse you ! ” snarled the trimmer, “ what’s 
that for? ” 

“ Because we’re short-manned in the stokehold 
already, me son ; an’ if there’s a hand goes, it’s 
meself that’ll have to stand watch and watch in 
his place. Havin’ got you, I shall be a jintleman 
now, and slape in my bed at night all the way to 
New Orleans. See that ? ” 

This mucky old tramp’ll be blowed up sure’s 
death, and I shall be killed.” 

Well, bless me ! ” retorted the donkeyman ; 
‘^who’d miss you if you was killed — always sup- 
posing you weren’t wanted for our furnaces? 
Here, get up, you half-baked scum of the work- 
house, and tumble below. Thank your stars the 
old man hasn’t seen you from the bridge. But 
don’t give me any more of your lip, or I’ll report 
you to him and the chief to boot. Now, mosey** 

The coal-trimmer blew his nose on his gray neck- 
handkerchief, and shambled off below, mutter- 
ing. The donkeyman returned to his winch, un- 
bent the chain, and sent it down into the adjacent 
hold. Then he retired to the poop deck-house, 
where he lived with the carpenter and boatswain, 


The Send-off. 


87 

and offered to bet those worthies (who had just 
come in for dinner) that Captain Kettle shot some 
one on board before thQ Port Edes tied up against 
New Orleans levee. 

He’s a just holy terror, our old man,” observed 
the donkeyman cheerfully. “ I sailed with him 
once before, and he unbent a quartermaster’s 
front teeth with the bridge telescope before we 
were three days out. With the smudgy crowd 
we’ve got here now, it’s a pound to a brick they 
start him moving, even sooner than that. Not 
that I mind myself. Sea’s dull enough as a 
general thing, and I like to see a bit of life throw- 
ing about. And at that game, little Red Kettle’s 
good as a Yankee skipper any day.” 


88 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER IX. 

GROUND-BAIT. 

For reasons, the Port Edes took the “ North 
about” course; that is, she headed across south 
of the Banks of Newfoundland nearly to Cape 
Hatteras, and then braved the three-knot current 
of the Gulf Stream by passing down the Florida 
Channel on the western side of the Bahamas. 
They had carried good weather with them — light 
head breezes or calms — all the way ; and, although 
coals were dear and the day’s outlay was limited 
to twenty-eight tons by order, the steamer usually 
averaged ten and a half knots, despite the unskil- 
fulness of the engine-room staff. 

In a canvas chair on the bridge deck under the 
lee of the fiddley sat Patrick Onslow, with a pipe 
between his teeth and Pierre Loti’s “ Fantome 
d’Orient ” in his lap. He was distinctly idling. 
For the moment he was wondering how, from so 
transparently blue a sea, the spray which jumped 
from the wave-crests could be colorless and opaque. 
Then, by following with the eye a tangle of 


Ground-Bait, 


89 

yellow Gulf weed which floated past, his atten- 
tion was carried away to some little gray spouts 
of fog, which told of whales and their calves tak- 
ing a summer outing in the milk-warm waters of 
the south. Beyond, his eyes fell upon one of the 
screw-pile lighthouses with which the United 
States Government has fringed the Florida shoal ; 
and on the far horizon sprouted the wind-threshed 
tops of some scattered cabbage palms, which told 
that there at least the shallow sea was sea no 
more. At the back of these palms lay the mys- 
terious shelter of the Everglades. 

A thought passed through Patrick Onslow’s 
mind, a thought of the drama to be played under 
shelter of those recesses within the next few days, 
and he frowned. He thrust the thought from him 
as an impertinence, and turned again to his novel. 
But he was destined just then to read no more 
from that dainty vignette of Stamboul. Through 
the grating of the fiddley above his head came a 
frightened shout; then a chorus; then a prolonged 
clattering, as iron tools were thrown on the floor- 
plates, and the boots of scared men smote the 
rungs of the ladders. 

Onslow gave a quick smile to himself, as though 
he understood something ; then mounted a look 
of concern on his face, and, getting up from his 
chair, crossed to port and strode up to the break 
of the bridge-deck. The captain, coming out of 


90 


Honor of Thieves. 


the chart-house, joined him. From the door of 
the alley-way beneath them rushed a crowd of 
frightened men — trimmers and stokers, stripped 
to the waist, engineers in dungaree — all the human 
contents of the lowest hold. Kettle singled out 
the Chief with his eye, and addressed him with 
sour irony — 

“ ’Afternoon, Mr. McFee. Fine, isn’t it, for 
the time of year ? Have your curs forgotten that 
they’re paid to work this steamboat up Missis- 
sippi River to a city called New Orleans? Or 
have they induced the other watch to go below 
and give them a spell? ” 

“ Guid God, sir, dinna jest ! ” replied the Chief. 

“Ye remember what yon scoundrel said on 
Liverpool dock wall ? Weel, he’s been as guid 
as his words, sir. We’ve found an infernal machine 
already.” 

“ Well ? ” drawled Kettle. 

“ Man, we may be blown to the sea-floor any 
minute.” 

“ Sea whisky ! sea grandmother ! ” 

“ Man, sir, see wi’ your own een. By God’s 
guid mercy the donkeyman picked it from among 
the coals, or it’s no knowin’ where we’d bin this 
blessed moment ! ” 

“ Hand it up here,” the skipper commanded 
shortly. 

The burly donkeyman, half grinning, half 


Ground- Bait. 


91 

afraid, came up the iron steps and handed the cap- 
tain a box painted to look like a knob of coal. 

“ It was ticking when I picked it up, sir," he 
said, but when I handled it, the ticking stopped." 

The captain took the thing in his hand. It 
started on a ducky ducky and the grimy men 
on the iron decks below humped their shoulders 
as though to better receive a blow, and began to 
shuffle away towards the bows. 

“ Oh, it may be something dangerous," said 
Captain Kettle, and he hove his burden over the 
side, “ or it mayn’t. Looked to me like a toy to 
frighten flats. There’s only one man with the 
pluck of a’ roach amongst you, and here’s half-a- 
crown for him." 

The donkeyman’s black forefinger knuckled his 
greasy cap. 

“As for the rest, your mothers must have 
suckled you on pigeons’ milk, and then sent you 
to a girls’ school to dry-nurse. You pack of 
beauties ! Oh, you cowardly, bobby-hunted 
gems ! If the thing was found, well, found it was, 
and the donkeyman brought it on deck. What 
do you want to foul the clean air for with your 
dingy^ stinking carcasses before your watch was 
out? I’ll log every man of you for this; yes, 
Mr. McFee, and Mr. Second, and Mr. Third, I’ll 
dirty your tickets for you as well, and if you give 
me another ounce of bother I’ll take care you 


92 


Honor of Thieves. 


none of you ever get another berth so long as the 
universe holds water to carry shipping. You 
cowardly hounds ! Oh, you trust me ! ” 

The men slunk back into the alley-way again 
out of shot of the skipper’s tongue, and the en- 
gineers, plucking up courage first, led the way 
below. Some one clattered a shovel on a firebar. 
Instinct made the trimmers obey the signal, and 
they went to the bunkers. The firemen followed, 
and the steam-gauge remounted before it had 
received any appreciable check. It was all an 
affairs of five minutes. 

Kettle passed a forefinger round the inside of 
his shirt-collar, and strolled across with Onslow 
^ to where the deck-chairs straddled in the shade of 
the fiddley. “ They’re a holy crew, aren’t they ? ” 
said the master of the Port Edes. 

“ I think they’re what we want. We should be 
rather out of it with a plucky lot who insisted on 
standing by us at a pinch.” 

“ Oh, don’t you make any error about that,” re- 
plied Kettle. ‘‘ They’d have been shaky anyway, 
but this bogus clockwork devil of yours fixes 
them to a nicety. It’ll be every Jack for him- 
self when the scare comes, and Davy Jones take 
the steamer, and the others. Oh, they’ll run like 
a warren of rabbits. The brutes ! ” 

Kettle broke off abruptly, and stared moodily 
over the Gulf Stream. A flying-fish got out of 


Ground-Bait. 


93 

the blue water and ran across the ripples like a 
silver rat. A school of porpoises snorted lei- 
surely up from astern, and passed the steamer 
as though she had been at anchor. And the 
tangles of the gulf-weed floated past like reefs 
of tawny coral. 

“ Do you ever read poetry?” the skipper sud- 
denly asked. 

Onslow slewed round his head and stared. 
The idea of this vinegar-mouthed little savage 
talking of poetry very nearly made him break into 
wild laughter. With an effort he steadied his 
face and said quietly, “ Sometimes.” 

“ Fm glad of that. Somehow I hadn’t dared 
ask you before, but now I know, Mr. Onslow, I 
like you all the better. It gives us something in 
common we can talk about without being 
ashamed. We can’t very well discuss the other 
matter which binds us together and respect 
ourselves at the same time.” 

‘‘Quite right. You and I, captain, are shoul- 
dered to common piracy by the force of circum- 
stances ; but I always kick myself when I think 
about it. There’s no glamour of romance about 
our intended villainy, or the way it’s being led 
up to.” 

“ Not a bit. Byron wrote about piracy, but 
Byron was no seaman, and he didn’t know what 
hazing a crew meant. A thief’s a dirty scoun- 


94 


Honor of Thieves. 


drel all the world over, and always has been ; 
and a sea thief, having the scum of the earth to 
handle, has to make himself the crudest brute on 
earth if he wants to succeed. I think it’s that 
which put me out of liking with Byron and all those 
poets who’ve written about movement at sea. 
They give a wrong idea of men’s motives and ac- 
tions, and when they get talking on shop, they’re 
that inaccurate and absurd they make one tired. 
No, Mr. Onslow, give me a land poet, who talks 
about farms, and primroses, and tinkling brooks, 
and things he understands, and with that man I 
can sit through two watches on end. Reading 
him may make me feel low, but it doesn’t do a 
man harm to be that way sometimes. Ye 
see, Mr. Onslow, a scuffle, or a row with a muti- 
nous crew, is just meat and drink to me. Yes, sir, 
that’s the kind of brute I am.” 

They chatted and basked during the rest of the 
afternoon, whilst the two mates off watch painted 
ironwork, and the crew off duty grumbled and 
smoked and slept in the stuffy forecastle. The 
cabin tea came. Kettle, at the head of the table, 
preserved a sour silence, and Onslow and the 
mates carried amongst them a strained civility. 
And then skipper and supernumerary officer re- 
turned to their canvas chairs beside the fiddley on 
the bridge-deck. 

The Gulf Stream rippled crisply over the 


Ground-Bait, 


95 

steamer’s wake astern, and the small wavelets of 
a calm licked the yellow rust-stains which patched 
her sweeping flank. Before them the narrow sea 
was the color of a dull blue roofing-slate. The 
bright, hot day had faded ; the brilliant cobalt 
had filtered away from overhead, and a silver 
nail-paring of moon peered from a sky of amor- 
phous violet, still lighted in its higher flats by the 
sun’s after-glow. 

On the horizon line was what at first appeared 
to be a steamer’s smoke, but what the glass 
showed to be the reek of a fire on the invisible, 
low-lying Florida coast. No blaze-glow could 
be seen. It might be a fisher’s camp-fire on an 
outlying key ; it might be a game-driving of 
Seminole Indians beyond the explored coast- 
fringe, in that unknown tangle of trees and 
grasses and lagoons, the Everglades themselves. 

“ It’s worth living, Mr. Onslow, times like 
these,” said Kettle, when they had sat there in 
silence till the warm night had spread all over, and 
the white stars were beginning to show in multi- 
tudes through its gaps. 

The other nodded, sucking at his cold pipe. 
“ None of those poets have ever put all this down 
on paper. They’ve got parts — bits — but not all. 
I fancy it is because they haven’t seen the thing 
for themselves. I’ve tried myself, but I haven’t 
made much account of it.’* 


96 Honor of Thieves. 

“ What, you — you’re a poet ? ” Onslow ppped 
out. 

“ I knock off a bit of verse occasionally,” 
said the skipper complacently. “ When I’m 
in the mood, that is. It generally comes times 
like this — when I’ve been tail-twisting the hands, 
and have a spell of a rest and a think after- 
wards.” 

“ I see — the outcome of the vivid contrast,” 
said Onslow. He imagined to himself that these 
boasted poems would be of the “ heroic ” order, 
to the verge of melodrama. As it happened, he 
could not conveniently have made a worse guess. 
Kettle lugged from his pocket a doubled-up exer- 
cise-book, reddened slightly under the tan, and 
handed it across. His companion flattened out the 
crease, and, in the light which came from a chart- 
house port, dipped into , the manuscript verses 
for himself. To his astonishment, they were 
one and all sonnets and ballads which might well 
have been written by a sentimental schoolgirl. 
They breathed of love and devotion and prema- 
ture fading away, and at least three gushing ad- 
jectives qualified each tender noun. 

There was no word about the sea, on which 
their author had spent his life, or of the things of 
the sea, with which he had had all his dealings. 
He knew about these as few men did, but they 
seemed common to him, and unclean. Conse- 


Ground- Bait. 


97 

quently he had delivered himself of an ode to 
that Spring which he had never witnessed ashore, 
and love songs to ladies he had never met outside 
the covers of cheap fiction. It was all imagina- 
tion, and untutored, uninspired imagination at 
that. 

As a result, Onslow found the poems too kill- 
ingly funny for words, and was consumed with 
a wild desire for laughter ; but, with that red- 
bearded little savage, their maker, glaring anx- 
iously at him from the opposite shadow, he dare 
not let so much as the tail of a smile dance from 
the corner of his mouth. He had to enjoy and 
endure in silence; and, with the exercise-book 
thrust out to the yellow light-stream, he read on 
through the stanzas diligently. 

In one, evidently autobiograpfiical, the writer 
spoke of himself as a “ timid frail gazelle,” in 
another he addressed his remarks from the mouth- 
piece of a “coy and cooing turtle-dove,” to 
a “sylphlike maiden of haughty mien,” who, at 
the time of the narration, was the “ bewitching, 
entrancing, unparalleled queen ” of another gen- 
tleman’s hearth. An “ Ode to Excellence,” which 
commenced “ Hairy Alfred, brother bard,” was 
evidently directed at a contemporary ; but the 
past was cared for in “ Cleopatra, a lament,” which 
a footnote stated could be sung to the tune of 
“ Greenland’s Icy Mountains.” 

7 


Honor of Thieves. 


98 

Probably as a collection Captain Kettle’s was 
unique in its clumsy, maudlin sentiment, and its 
general unexpectedness. 

Meanwhile the author was fidgeting nervously. 
He had not got over that initial nervousness 
which publication gives. He hungered for a criti- 
cism — favorable if possible. At last he made 
bold to ask for it. 

“You’re a wonderful man. Kettle,” returned 
his companion, quite meaning what he said ; “ and 
unless I had seen those verses for myself, I’d 
never have believed, you capable of producing 
them, no matter what had been told me about 
your powers.” 

The poet gave a sigh of relief, and was going 
to pursue the subject further, when something 
fell upon his ear which turned his thoughts into a 
very different key. 

“ By James ! there’s the engine stopped. What’s 
up now, I wonder?” 

He jumped to his feet, and stood with neck 
craned out, listening. The ring of heavy boots 
made itself heard on the engine-room ladders. 
Then there was a murmur of voices and a pat- 
tering of footsteps from the forecastle, and pres- 
ently a stream of men began to ascend the bridge- 
deck ladders. Amongst the growing babel of 
voices came references to the gold : “ Half a mil- 
lion yellow sovereigns, boys ! ” and threats there 


Ground-Bait. 


99 

was no mistaking. “ Teach the old man manners, 
or put him over the side ! ” 

By an evident previous arrangement the men 
were massing themselves on the port side of the 
bridge deck. 

“ Mutiny, by James ! — that’s what this means ! ” 
commented Captain Kettle in an undertone. 

He was cool as ice, and on the moment had 
decided how to act. 

Now, Mr. Onslow, slip into the chart-house 
for your pistol. I have mine in my pocket. It’s 
us two against the crowd of ’em, and we’ll finish 
out top side. Oh, don’t you make any error ; 
it’ll be a red night’s work for those dogs. But 
we’ll rub the fear of death into them before we’ve 
done this time — into those that are left, that is. 
Get your pistol, quick, sir, and skin your eye for 
handy shooting ! ” 


100 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER X. 

MUTINY. 

Patrick Onslow came out of the chart-house 
with all the armament he could lay hands upon ; 
to wit, three revolvers. He gave one to the Cap- 
tain and put the others in his own jacket pocket, 
so that they had a brace apiece. From the other 
side of the bridge-deck the clamor of the men 
rose high into the night ; and the steamer’s fore- 
truck began to swing past the stars. Her engines 
had stopped, the quartermaster had deserted the 
wheel, and the Gulf Stream was taking her as 
simple flotsam whither it listed. 

There was no starboard ladder to the upper 
bridge, but Kettle swung himself lightly up by a 
funnel-stay and a stanchion, and climbed over 
the canvas dodger. Onslow followed as nimbly. 
The mate of the watch received them with a 
frightened sidelong glance, but no words ; and 
then he vanished into the darkness. 

Captain Owen Kettle stumped cheerfully 
across to the port side of the bridge and looked 
down. Beneath him, massed and moving, was 
apparently every man of his crew. The electric 


Mutiny. loi 

lamp from inside the head of the companion-way 
blazed full upon them, dazzling some of the 
group, and blinding the others with dense black 
shadow. With folded arms he looked down on 
them for a full minute, with a silent, sneering 
laugh, till the upturned faces, which had been 
quiet in expectation, began to grow clamorous 
again. Then he waved them to noiselessness, 
and spoke. 

The man’s words were not conciliatory. He 
addressed his hearers as dogs, and wished to 
know, in the name of the Pit, why they had dared 
to leave their duties and their kennel to come 
to sully his bridge-deck. 

The harangue was brief and beautifully to the 
point. An ordinary seaman stood out into the 
middle of the circle of light, and made reply: 
“You gall us togs, und you dreat us as togs, und 
we’re nod going to schtandt it no longer. This 
grew temants its rechts ! ” 

“ Hallo ! ” said Kettle, “ got a blooming Dutch- 
man to speak for you ? Well, you must be a 
hard-up crowd ! See here now, if you do want 
to talk, have your say, and be done with it. Eng- 
lish is the official language on this ship ; under- 
stand that, and don’t waste my time.” 

The German seemed inclined to bluster and 
hold his ground, but he had no backers. 

“ If you’re undecided,” suggested Captain Ket- 


102 


Honor of Thieves. 


tie, “ you’ve got a nigger amongst you ; why not 
set him on to talk ? If you were men, I wouldn’t 
say it ; but he’s as much a man as any of you, 
and perhaps he’ll throw in a sand-dance to enliven 
proceedings.” 

The negro, from somewhere on the outskirts of 
the crowd, broke into a loud guffaw, till some one 
kicked him on the shins, and sent him away yelp- 
ing diminuendo into the farther darkness. An 
angry growl went up from the white men at the 
taunt, and one of them, a whiskered quarter- 
master in a cardigan jacket, stepped out and spat 
into the circle of light. He looked round to catch 
the encouraging glances of his mates, and then 
lifted up his face towards the upper bridge. 

See here. Captain Kettle, you’d better not try 
us-too far. This isn’t a slave ship you’re com- 
manding. It’s a common, low-down, British 
tramp ; and the law looks after the deck-hands 
and all the rest of us.” 

“ Now that’s fair speaking,” said Kettle. “ I’ve 
a profound respect for the Merchant Shipping 
Act and all the rest of the laws. My lad, if you 
fancy you’ve anything to complain of, a sea-lawyer 
like you must know the remedy. Get your wit- 
nesses and go with them before the British Con- 
sul in New Orleans.” 

“A fat lot of good that would do,” retorted the 
man. What consul ever believed an old sailor 


Mutiny. 103 

against the skipper ? No, sir ; we’d only get peni- 
tentiary for our pains. Besides, what we want — 
and what we intend to have — is an alteration in 
things, beginning now.” 

‘‘ Ah ! I see. And what would you like ? Shall 
I have a hold cleared out and fit up with four-post 
beds for you to make a drawing-room of? Shall 
I order my steward to hand iced pop round to the 
gentlemen who are heavin’ coals in the stokehold ? 
Come now, out with it ! ” 

The little captain was deliberately irritating the 
men, and Onslow marveled at his recklessness. 
Once let an outbreak start, and he and Kettle 
stood not one chance in a million of living through 
it. But Kettle knew his game, and was playing 
it well. 

Only one man laughed, and his laugh closed up 
again in a moment like the snap of a watch. 
Some scowled, a few swore ; the quartermaster 
in the cardigan jacket alone remained unmoved. 
Of Kettle’s outrageous raillery he took no notice 
whatever, but continued his plaint in a solid 
monotone, as though he had been reading it from 
a book. 

In the first instance, it’s the grub we com- 
plains of, partic’ly the sugar. It ain’t sugar at 
all ; it’s just a slump of molasses.” 

“ That,” said Kettle, “ is due to your own lazi- 
ness. The bottom of a sugar barrel’s always that 


104 


Honor of Thieves. 


way unless you turn it end for end every day or 
so. The molasses ’d settle through the Queen’s 
sugar at Windsor and spoil half of it unless the 
barrel was looked to. By James!” he continued, 
with a first show fury, is it for this you dogs 
have turned yourselves into a howling pack of 
mutineers, and let my ship drift like a hen-coop 
towards Newfoundland?” 

The quartermaster was obviously disconcerted 
by the attack, so much so, in fact, that he missed 
the next few counts of his indictment, and came 
at once to the main head. 

“ It’s a rise of wages that we insists on prin- 
cipally,” he said. “ We take it we’ve been signed 
on for this run to New Orleans under false pre- 
tenses. Nothing was said about the sort of cargo 
we was to carry, which, naturally, incites them 
anarchist chaps to vi’lence. We’re suffering 
undue risks. There’s been one devil machine 
found already, and as like as not there is others 
besides. The bloomin’ ole tramp may go up any 
minute ; and because we’re standing that risk, we 
say we ought to be paid accordin’. The cargo 
can stand the pull, and if you aren’t willing, the 
hands here has made up their minds to broach it 
for themselves.” 

Kettle did not answer at once. He seemed to 
be twisting words over and over in his mouth, 
and then gulping them down his throat and bring- 


Mutiny. 105 

ing up others. It was a full minute before the 
man found speech, but then it came from him in 
a torrent. “You great fools!” he cried, “this 
isn’t an ordinary cargo that you can help your- 
selves out of, and let the underwriters stand treat. 
You bet the tallyman won’t wink at any yarn 
about ‘ damaged in transit ’ over the stuff we’re 
bringing out. If there’s so much as a miserable 
half-sovereign missing, the whole crowd here, cook 
and captain’s dog, stay in a New Orleans calaboose 
till it’s found, and then come out with their 
tickets dirtied. Oh ! you one-eyed, mutton- 
headed fools ! ” 

Onslow stared at the man curiously. His 
truculent tone had left him completely. His 
hands had quitted the pistol-butts and were 
gripped on the bridge rail. His elbows were beat- 
ing nervously against his ribs. 

From some mouth in the blacker shadow came 
a deep, derisive laugh ; and then a voice (pre- 
sumably from the laugher) said : “ Who wants to 
go to New Orleans? Who wants to go nearer 
than the next key, of reef, or sandbank, or what- 
ever it may be ? Let’s pile up the blazing old 
tramp on that, and then boat-cruise across to 
Cuba. There’s nice, snug bays in Cuba, where 
the guardacostas don’t ask questions ; or, if they 
did, a bit of yellow ballast out of the boats would 
stop their jaws quick enough.” 


io6 Honor of Thieves. 

The voice laughed again and ceased. 

Who spoke there?” Captain Kettle de- 
manded. 

Out rolled into the bright circle the massive 
body of the donkeyman. 

You ! ” 

The donkeyman knuckled his greasy cap in 
assent. 

I’m your man, Capt’n,” he said, “ but I’d be 
pleaseder to help ye carrying out the crew’s wishes 
than going agin them. You’ll be dealt by hon- 
ustly, Capt’n — liberally — yes, better than ye ever 
have been in this world yet, or ever will be again 
— an’ the steamer will be lost at say. Blowed to 
rivuts an’ ould iron by a conspirathor’s bomb. 
It’s a most natural ending for her.” 

Kettle stared at the donkeyman with his mouth 
agape, and the eyes standing out of his head. 
His face was thrust out at full neck’s length ; his 
fingers beat a vague tattoo on the white iron rail 
of the bridge. 

Then the crew’s original spokesman lifted up 
his unlucky voice for the second time : “ Ach, 
vriends, we’re vasting minutes. We haf made up 
our mindts. Why should we not go und tivide 
ter cold mitout furder pother ? Cood Ole Man! 
come and sgramble for a share like ter rest of 
us.” 

Slowly Captain Kettle stiffened. His eyes lost 


Mutiny. 107 

their stare and glinted unpleasant fire in their 
more proper orbits ; his lower jaw closed up with 
a snap ; his fists slid to his jacket pockets and 
gripped there, 

“You painted Dutchman ! ” 

The crew rustled uneasily. 

“ Do I live to hear a set of dogs like you dic- 
tating to me? Does any man here think he’s 
going to have an inch of his own way aboard 
of me ? ” 

“ Come, Captain Kettle,” said the quartermas- 
ter, who had talked before, “ don’t be unreasonable. 
The Dutchman means well, though he didn’t put 
it Bristol fashion. And besides, we’ve made up 
our minds to share in that gold, and you’d better 
chip in and share too, without a dust. It’ll be a 
deal comfortabler for all hands, and besides, it’s 
got to be done, anyway. We’re all determined, 
and we’re too many for you, even if Mr. Onslow 
does stand in on your side.” 

Kettle’s face lit up with the joy of battle. 
“ Are you, by James ! ” he snapped. “ We’ll see 
about that. I’d handle twice your number to 
my own cheek any day. I done it before, on a 
dashed sight uglier lot than you, and came out 
top side ; and I’m going to do it again now. Mr. 
Onslow’s with me, too, this time, and we’ve got 
twenty bullets amongst us That’ll all go home in 
somebody’s ribs before any of you get at hand- 


io8 Honor of Thieves. 

grips with us. Now just play on that, you scum. 
There’s not a one of you got a pistol.” 

“Oh! haven’t we?” commented a nasal voice 
on the outskirts of the crowd, “ I guess you’re 
out there, mister. I’m heeled for one.” 

Crack ! 

The man shrieked and fell in a limp heap on 
the deck. His weapon clattered down beside 
him. Kettle kept his smoking pistol-muzzle raised 
steady as an iron wrist could hold it. 

The others instinctively drew at first away from 
the fallen man ; but one ordinary seaman, 
younger and more plucky than the rest, darted 
forward to regain the fallen revolver. As his 
fingers closed over it, his eyes instinctively sought 
the bridge. Onslow had his revolver sighted 
over the crook of an elbow; Kettle his at arm’s 
length. Both were covering him. 

“ Fling that thing overboard, or you’ll be dead 
before you can wink 1 ” 

The crew’s only revolver span through the air, 
and hit the water with a tinkling splash. 

“ Now stand forward the two fools who have 
been your spokesmen.” 

The crowd stood like men petrified. 

“ Quick, or I’ll make practise into the brown of 
you 1 ” 

The quartermaster in the cardigan jacket 
stepped out of his own accord, undefiant now, 


Mutiny. 109 

and white. The German was hustled to his 
side. 

“ Have you got a coin, quartermaster ? ” 

No, sir.” 

“ Have you — sausage ? ” 

‘‘Yes, herry 

“ Then spin it up, and do you, quartermaster, 
call to him. And mind you call right, because I’m 
going to shoot the loser, and perhaps you are the 
least useless of the two. Spin, confound you ! 
Spin, saus^e, or by James I’ll shoot you where 
you stand, and settle it that way ! ” 

The German put something between his dished 
palms and shook it violently ; then clinched one 
hand, and thrust it out into the full blaze of the 
lamplight. 

The quartermaster cried head.” The other 
unwrapped his grimy fingers with slow jerks, and 
showed. The coin was a halfpenny, Britannia 
uppermost. The quartermaster buttoned his 
cardigan jacket, and drew himself up to face the 
upper bridge. 

“ Hold up your hand ! ” 

It shot up to the full length, fingers splayed 
out. crack ! and a bullet ripped through 

the middle of the palm. The fellow let out a 
short yelp of surprise, and clapped the wounded 
member tightly under his armpit. The men 
around him, utterly cowed, stood in frozen silence ; 


no 


Honor of Thieves. 


and Captain Owen Kettle from the bridge waved 
slow patterns over them with a revolver 
muzzle. 

Then he crammed both weapons into his jacket 
pockets again, and gave orders — sharply, crisply, 
and with decision. 

“ Watch below, get forward, and turn in. 
Watch on duty, go to your posts. Quartermaster 
of the wajich, tumble up here. Sou’- west and by 
sou’.” 

A quartermaster ran briskly up the bridge 
ladder. 

S’-west and by sou’ it is, sir,” he replied. It 
was the only comment any of the crew made to 
Captain Kettle on his method. * 


To-Night. 


Ill 


CHAPTER XI. 

TO-NIGHT. 

Another day and another sky. Now the 
blue Gulf waters were as leaden and dense as that 
one looks upon in a hard North Sea gale ; and the 
heavens overhead were full of lurid grays which 
raced one another in sliding chase till they were 
lost in the northern mist drifts. The steamer 
rolled heavily to a steep beam sea ; and when it 
could be seen, the iron of her lower decks, forward 
and aft, gleamed as though it had been new-coated 
with ocher varnish. But this was not often, for 
four minutes out of every five the decks were filled 
with a clamoring, hissing pond of green and 
cotton-white, which the scuppers could only 
empty piecemeal. 

The time was evening — twenty hours after the 
quelling of the mutiny, and the three tenants of 
the upper bridge were the only human beings 
on any of the outer decks. On the midship 
grating stood a high-heeled quartermaster holding 
on to the spokes of the steam wheel, browsing on 
plug tobacco, and keeping his eyes mechanically 


II2 


Honor of Thieves. 


fixed on the jumping compass card. Alternately 
climbing and descending athwartships as the 
bridge swung under him, the third mate took his 
sea constitutional in rubber thigh-boots, with 
hands thrust into the waistbelt of his breeches. 
As officer of the watch, every time he passed the 
binnacle he faced front and took a regulation peer 
round the foggy line of horizon, with an utter 
lack of interest. He was an elderly man, the 
third mate, and the sea held no more surprises for 
him, and no more interest, and no more pleasures. 
If ever he had ambition, he had lost it years since. 
His aim in life was to hold a position of small re- 
sponsibility, and earn a monthly wage with the 
smallest possible outlay of exertion, either mental 
or physical. 

The remaining occupant of the bridge sat on a 
camp-stool under the lee of the weather dodger, 
with his red peaked beard on his chest, his slip- 
pered feet stuck out in front, his elbows crooked 
out behind him, and hands deep in his jacket 
pockets. Every time the third mate’s footsteps 
neared him his eyes opened, and for an instant 
flashed round to the right-hand angle of their 
orbits. Between whiles he slept. It was owing 
to this faculty of literally snatching moments of 
rest that Captain Kettle, at the end of his twenty 
hours’ spell on the upper bridge, was as fresh as 
though he had just got up from a clear night’s 


To-Night. 1 13 

sleep. This watchfulness was necessary, for, as 
the experienced skipper was quite aware, fully 
half the hands would have gladly tossed him 
overboard if they could have grappled him with- 
out danger to themselves. 

Presently, however, he dropped his doze with 
a snap, and slewed round to face the head of 
the bridge ladder, entirely wakeful. 

A head showed itself, black-haired, with a 
clean-shaven, bright, determined face. The cor- 
responding body followed — lean, tall, muscular. 

“ Ah, Mr. Onslow, you’ve brought me some 
provender? Thanks indeed. What? Sandwich 
and tea? Couldn’t be better.” 

“ I have whisky in my pocket.” 

“ Not for me now. Wait till we get ashore, 
and then I’ll booze with any man to his heart’s 
content. The game I’m on now is like a boat- 
race — if a man wants to win he’s got to diet him- 
self.” 

The third mate, to show to any chance on- 
looker that he was not in sympathy with the un- 
popular captain, planted himself in the angle of 
the lee dodger, which was the greatest distance 
that the ties of duty would allow him to depart. 
Kettle, with an acid grin, drew his companion’s 
attention to this move. 

“ What’ll that chap do to-night when the fun 

begins ? ” 

8 


Honor of Thieves. 


114 

“ Bolt like a rat with the first alarm. He’d 
show pluck if he was paid for it, would my third 
mate; but not being paid, he’ll take the best care 
possible of his own ugly hide. He isn’t a fellow 
who’d ever like a tight corner for its own sake. 
There’s not an atom of the sportsman about 
him.” 

Onslow laughed. “You’re just the other way, 
Captain.” 

Kettle’s face clouded. “ It’s a fact,” he said. 
“ Times I am that way — curse my cantankerous 
luck.” 

“ Your weakness in that direction came in 
handily for me yesterday.” 

“You’re right, Mr. Onslow, right all through. 
By George, I’d half a mind to chip in with these 
rogues and grab what I could. It was a tempt- 
ing chance, and it would have been a deal more 
profitable to me than what I’m in for now. As 
for the honesty of the thing, there wasn’t a pin 
to choose between it and this racket of yours and 
Mr. Shelf’s. But it was that Dutchman’s gall that 
put me off. If he’d held his silly jaw, and if those 
other bladder-heads had let me understand I was 
to hold the pistol-hand over them, well, the Port 
Edes would have coral rock spouting through her 
bottom plates this minute, and I’d be a man own- 
ing a matter of three to five thousand pounds. 
That’s putting it straight.” 


To-Night. 1 15 

‘‘ So,” said Onslow, “ I suppose I have to thank 
the said Dutchman for carrying a sound windpipe 
this minute ? ” 

“ No,” replied Kettle thoughtfully, “ I don’t 
think it. I fancy you’d have behaved reasonable 
over the new deal, and then I’d have stood by 
you. Especially,” he added slowly, as though 
from after-thought, “ especially if those dogs 
thought that you’d have been safer out of the 
way. What,” he asked with a sudden frown, as 
though the subject annoyed him — “ what have 
you been doing with yourself thi^ afternoon ? ” 

“ Physicking a sick fireman principally. The 
stokehold temperature was 105 degrees, and as he 
amused himself drinking condensed water by the 
quart together, the somewhat natural consequence 
was cramp in the stomach. They sent him up by 
the ashlift, and your steward dosed him with 
chlorodyne and laudanum, and tincture of rhu- 
barb. The result wasn’t encouraging.” 

“ Oh, there’s never any knowing what to do 
with a sick stoker’s inside. But one of those 
drugs ought to have fetched him.” 

“ Perhaps one did ; but the other two didn’t 
seem to fit his ailment.” 

“ Well, he had them for nothing, so I don’t see 
what call he had to complain. I never saw such 
a crew for physic. They’ve drunk that big chest 
half dry as it is, and if I’d let ’em, they’d have 


ii6 Honor of Thieves. 

drunk it three times over. What did you do to 
the chap ? Fill him up on the same again, or try 
a pill ? There’s ten sorts of pills in that chest, 
beauties some of them. You should have tried 
him on those little silver-coated chaps marked C. 
They’re regular twisters.” 

“ Well, you see, he was twisted enough already, 
poor devil, and if it hadn’t been for the donkey- 
man holding him, he’d have been overboard 
through the ash-shoot to be rid of his misery. 
So as it was I gave him a tumblerful of raw 
whisky, and that seemed gradually to untie him 
agaift'Out of his knots.” 

The captain snorted. ^‘You’re greener than I 
thought, Mr. Onslow. If we’d been going on, 
you’d have had half the crew sick on your hands 
for a dose of that kind. They’re bad enough 
after sour, square doctor’s physic, but for a 
tumbler of liquor and a spell of idleness, an old 
sailor would have an ear and three toes cut off 
any day. However,” he added, rising stiffly to 
his feet and stretching, “ the chief and donkey- 
man’ll see he doesn’t malinger for long. They 
are none of them sweet on doing another man’s 
work, that gang. Heigh-ho ! See that line of 
surf we’re bringing over the lee quarter?” 

The Tortugas ? ” 

“ The Dry Tortugas. There’s a Yankee con- 
vict station on one of them.” 


To-Night. 1 17 

“ Don’t mention it.” 

Kettle grinned. “We shall have made enough 
westing soon, and then our course will be pretty 
nearly due north, so as to dodge the Gulf Stream 
as much as possible, and,” he added, in a lower 
tone, “ to get the ship as near as may be to 
your channel into Florida before we jettison the 
crew.” 

“ We shall run into the ship tracks from all the 
northern Gulf ports to Europe.” 

“ I know, and we must take our chance of not 
being spotted. Fora western sea there’s a regular 
string of traffic tailing down to the DryTortugas. 
There you are, for one. Look at that old wind- 
jammer.” 

He jerked with his thumb towards a green- 
painted wooden Italian barque, which was squat- 
tering past less than a quarter of a mile away, 
right athwart the last rays of the windy sunset. 
She was driving merrily homewards, sending her 
bows into it till the seas creamed against her cat- 
heads and darkened her jibs with brine up more 
than half their height. She was methodically 
reducing sail, and a dozen many-hued, picturesque 
tatterdemalions were aloft on the fore-topgallant 
yard hammering the struggling canvas into the 
gaskets. 

“The cowardly Dagos,” said Kettle; “that’s 
always their way. Snug down to topsails as soon 


ii8 Honor of Thieves. 

as it gets dark, even if there’s only a cat’s-paw 
blowing. By James ! with a breeze like this I’d 
be carrying royals on that old tub. And yet,” 
he went on, with his beard in the heel of his fist, 
and his eyes gazing out over the tumbling waters 
— “ and yet they say there used to be poetry in 
a craft of that sort, whilst there never was, and 
never will be, with a steamer. I suppose the 
reason is, that a poet has to be a man who knows 
nothing whatever about what he writes upon. I 
know that some chaps who string verses nowa- 
days have been on a steamboat and smelt the 
smells of her, and seen her lines, and watched the 
men who do the work ; and yetr they make no 
poetry about it. But of the old crew who wrote 
about moaning harbor-bars, and fair white pinions, 
and lusty wooden walls, and trusty hearts of oak — 
why, they knew no more about the thing than a 
London bobby does of angels. And that, I sup- 
pose, was why their stuff is called poetry, and the 
lubberly old wind-jammers poetical. You give 
me a smart steamboat, Mr. Onslow ; there’s all 
the romance on her an old sailorman’s got any 
use for ; and he understands it, too, even if he 
can’t put it down on paper.” 

“ I believe you’re right,” said Onslow thought- 
fully, “ and some day a new Dana or a new 
Michael Scott will come ashore from the upper 
bridge, or from an electric-lighted forecastle, or 


To-Night. 1 19 

from a forced-draught engine-room, and show it 
to us plainly ; whereupon we shall swear that we 
saw it for ourselves all along. But,” he went on, 
with a sudden frown, for the present let that 
drift. You and I have enough to think of in our 
immediate present without speculating over a 
possible prophet which is to arise.” 

“ We have; but so much must be arranged by 
the chance of the moment that I don’t see we 
can do much good by talking it over now. All 
arrangements that can be made ahead, I fancy 
we’ve got fixed up already. By the way, I sup- 
pose you are sure that your explosion in the fore- 
hold won’t be too big ? It would be an awkward 
do for us if the old ship’s bottom was really blown 
out in sober earnest.” 

The sun had gone entirely out by this time, 
and the young moon was sailing high amid scurry- 
ing cloud-banks. In the white and shifting light, 
Patrick Onslow’s face looked pale and anxious. 

“ You’re sure,” Kettle repeated, “it won’t be a 
case of the engineer being hoisted with his own 
thingammy ? ” 

“No, I’m not sure; and that’s what bothers 
me. You see, one couldn’t quite get an expert 
to measure out the precise necessary dose, and 
I’ve had to guess at it. I daren’t undercharge 
my bomb. If our explosion was a fizzle, and the 
crew didn't get scared and run, why then they’d 


120 


Honor of Thieves. 


take her up to New Orleans whether we liked it 
or not ; and she’d be examined. Then that in- 
take valve couldn’t be missed, and it couldn’t be 
explained away. Man, as you know, the thing's 
as big as a sluice-gate ! ” 

“ All the bilge pumps in the Gulf of Mexico 
couldn’t make headway against that valve, once 
it was fairly opened. It’s the quickest and clever- 
est way of scuttling a steamboat I ever heard of 
or read about. But I don’t quite see how the 
valve is going to be turned.” 

“ You leave that to me.” 

“You seem used to the game,” said Kettle, 
with a half sneer. 

“ No, I’m not,” returned the other quickly. 
“ I’ve never had my fingers in anything so ugly 
or so dirty before ; and because I don’t want to 
have the experience over again, I’m going to 
make this turn to a big profit, or get killed in the 
trying. I’m tired and sick of this wild, bucketing 
life. A woman drove me to it ; but I believe, if 
I had the means to settle down in comfort now, 
I could forget all about her, and wake up other 
new interests.” 

“ Well,” said Kettle, “ I hope we may each of 
us buy a farm out of this racket ; but, I tell you 
straight. I’m not over sweet on the chances. To 
begin with, you and I can’t handle this steamboat 
alone. It’s an absolute certainty we must have 


I2I 


To-Night. 

another hand to help us. You’ll have to take the 
wheel and pilot her through if you can, though 
that’s a mighty big job for one man, and the odds 
are about ten to one you’ll pile her up somewhere. 
I’ve got to be below. At a pinch I might drive 
the engines, though I don’t know much of the 
trade ; but I can’t do that and fire six two-hole 
boilers, and wheel coals out of the bunkers as 
well. Now, I think the donkey man is the chap 
we want. He understands his way about down 
there, he’s as strong as a winch, and I fancy he 
knows which side his biscuit’s margarined.” 

“Yes, I’m with you there. We’ll have the 
donkeyman if he’ll come.” 

“ Then why not sound him now ? ” 

“ Because I’ll hint of this infernal scheme to no 
one till it’s fairly ablaze. Man ! if a ghost’s 
whisper of it got about, the crew would rise and 
grab us, pistols or no pistols. They have that 
amount of scare in them they’d walk straight up 
to a Maxim gun. They’d trample us out of exist- 
ence before we could fairly look round. No, my 
neck itches enough as things are at present ; and 
if another on board now besides you knew what 
was going to be done to-night, I should feel a 
bowline noose inside my collar, with half a dozen 
hangmen beginning to tug at it.” 

“ See here, Mr. Onslow,” said the shipmaster, 
“ are you getting sorry you came out on this trip ? ” 


122 


Honor of Thieves. 


The other laughed harshly. “ Sorry ? What- 
ever have you got in your head now ? If I do a 
thing, I do it with my eyes open, and I make a 
point of never indulging in useless regrets after- 
wards. No, Captain Kettle, I’m going through 
with this matter, whether it succeeds or it fails ; 
whether it is brought about without injury to a 
single human soul, or whether it costs the last 
pant of breath for every one in this ship. But I 
own to you I am nervous. The only things 
which we can be sure will happen, are the un- 
expected ; and we can’t prepare for those ; and 
the want of preparation may ruin us.” 

“ It’s a big gamble,” assented Kettle, “and I 
wish I could say, ‘ May the Lord defend the 
right ! ’ But I can’t, and you can’t, and, least of 
all. Shelf can’t. It’s a devil’s job anyway, and he 
don’t always stand by his men. The only thing 
is, even Nick can’t diddle my wife and kids out of 
the insurance I made for them ; so, personally 
speaking, I don’t much care what happens. You 
go below to your room now, and get a caulk of 
sleep. You’ll want it. And, first, if you please. I’ll 
shake hands with you. We’ve never done it before, 
because a nod’s been enough other times ; but 
this is different. You’re a decentish sort ; and I 
fancy if that woman hadn’t meddled, you wouldn’t 
have been shipmates here with me to-night.” 

They exchanged a quick handgrip, each looking 


To-Night. 123 

rather ashamed of himself ; and then Onslow 
went down the bridge ladder whistling, and Owen 
Kettle resettled himself on his camp-stool. When 
next they met, the tragedy of the Port Edes 
would have begun, and in it perhaps both would 
die by any out of ten violent deaths. 


124 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER XII. 

A DERELICTION. 

Eight bells — midnight. 

The look-out in the crow’s-nest forward chanted 
his last melancholy “ All’s well ! ” and gave way 
to the relief from the next watch. He climbed 
down by the cleats in the iron mast, and went to 
the starboard door in the forecastle. Other men 
followed him, jumping like cats along the stream- 
ing decks ; and others came a little later — dingy 
fellows with neckclouts like dishcloths, who went 
in at the port door ; these last being the goats of 
shipboard, the firemen and trimmers, who were 
divided off from the more high-caste deckhands 
by a fore-and-aft bulkhead. 

The third mate and the quartermaster, too, 
from the upper bridge, were replaced by another 
quartermaster and another mate ; and they also 
went to the places appointed for them, and the 
snores of their breathing soon rattled against the 
bunk coamings. Only two men on the Port EdeSy 
who were not on the roster of duty, stood that 
windy morning’s first watch. Under the lee of 


A Dereliction. 


125 

the canvas shelter Captain Kettle sat huddled on 
his camp-stool in a style which no man could 
distinguish with certainty between wakefulness 
and sleep ; and below in his room, which opened 
off the main cabin, and was next the treasure- 
chamber, Patrick Onslow was dabbling in some- 
thing which the laws of nations would stigmatize 
as felony, and that of complex degree. 

There were two berths in the room — the upper 
one against the window port, which he slept in, 
and the lower, which contained two spread-out 
portmanteaus. Beneath this last were drawers 
in which the captain’s steward kept table linen, 
disused corks, the carpet which the chart-house 
sported in harbor, and other articles of ship’s 
use. Onslow had two of these drawers out on 
the floor, and from the recess of their site had drawn 
two fine green-silk-covered wires. 

He disentangled the coils, taking care to avoid 
a kink, and then unscrewed the porcelain switch 
which governed the room’s electric lamp. 
Beneath were certain pieces of metal embedded 
in vulcanite. 

Patrick Onslow gave his arms a preliminary 
stretch, a bare wire terminus in each hand. His 
fingers were trembling, as whose would not have 
been in the same situation? 

He noticed it, and commented to himself on 
the circumstance : “ That’s excitement, I sup- 


126 


Honor of Thieves. 


pose — excitement pure and understandable. Not 
being a man of stone, I can’t help being thrilled 
with the majesty of the moment, the sublime 
vagueness of my knowledge of what will happen 
when a current flashes through these wires. I’m 
not a coward. People who write about other 
men’s feelings when Death is beginning to paw 
them on the shoulder, write mostly from the 
imagination; and, so far as I’ve seen, they all do 
it wrong. I’ve been there; I’ve felt the old 
man’s bony touch more than once ; and so I 
know. A man isn’t of necessity terrified ; 
phantoms of his past deeds do not invariably 
flash before him ; nor does he always lose his 
nerve, and move like a cheap automaton. I can’t 
speak for others ; but what I personally have felt 
has been a dull carelessness for what is going to 
happen, and a curiosity about what will come 
afterwards. It seems to me that a thinking man, 
with the ambition of a mouse, should never fear 
death, because once dead, he becomes wiser than 
all the living remnant of the human race. There 
are men, I know, whom physical danger turns 
into a helpless mass of palpitating nerves. Shelf, 
for instance, is one of those. By Jove!” — he 
smiled grimly — “by Jove! I’d give a finger to 
have Theodore Shelf in my shoes just now, and 
force him to couple these wires, and spring the 
mine with his own fat, white fingers. I believe — 


A Dereliction. 


127 

yes, I verily believe the experience would turn him 
honest. Ah, there goes one bell. Time’s up.” 

Through a lull in the wind, the tenor clang of 
the ship’s bell came down to him, and on its 
heels, more dimly, the look-out’s dissyllabic as- 
surance in the dismal minor key that he was 
awake, and had nothing to report. 

Then Patrick Onslow made connection, and 
sent through the green-silk covered wires a current 
direct from the steamer’s dynamo ; and on that 
moment was thrown against the iron roof of the 
state room as though the infernal machine had 
exploded beneath his very feet 

***** 

The camp-stool was kicked into the air, the wet 
canvas dodgers shed water in streams, and Cap- 
tain Owen Kettle fell spread-eagled on the plank- 
ing of the bridge. From the hatch in the fore- 
deck before him had sprung a volcano of ruddy 
flame spurting through vast billows of smoke ; 
the iron plating round it buckled and split ; and 
the whole steamer gave a trembling, frightened 
leap. Presently, from the black, windy night 
above, there fell an avalanche of debris which 
smote the steamer and the water round, like 
canister-shot from a distant cannonade. 

Then came a thumping jar from the engine- 
room, repeated twice over ; and then the engines 
stopped. 


128 


Honor of Thieves. 


“ My God,” thought Kettle, “ he’s overshot the 
mark ! If she’s broken down, we’re done for.” 

But for all that he did not lose for an instant 
his presence of mind or instinct of command ; but, 
picking himself up, clapped a stumpy leaden 
whistle between his lips and blew shrilly. 

At first no one answered his summons. From 
the forecastle, from the stokehold, from aft, came 
the ship’s company, making by instinct for the 
high land of the bridge deck ; and from his emi- 
nence the little captain scowled down upon them 
and swore. It is not a wholesome sight to see 
grown men screaming through sheer terror ; and 
the sooner they are dissociated, either by words 
or blows, from this frame of mind, the more they 
will be able subsequently to respect themselves. 
By dint of a vinegar tongue, and suggestive move- 
ments towards a pair of implements which bulged 
his jacket pockets. Kettle drove a gang of five 
to set the mizzen trysail to keep the steamer 
head to sea. She was rapidly losing her way, 
and if she broached-to beam-on with that heavy 
sea running, the lower decks would be filled with 
green water continuously, and that, with such a 
gaping rent where the hatch had been, meant 
simply a rapid swamping. 

Then the captain looked round him, seemingly 
for a messenger. The mate of the watch hung on 
to the handle of the engine-room telegraph, which 


A Dereliction. 


129 


still pointed to “ full speed ahead,” looking dazed 
and helpless. The quartermaster’s hands were 
mechanically sawing at the spokes of the wheel, 
but it was equally evident that he also did not 
know what he was doing. Just then Onslow 
raced up the bridge ladder three steps at a time. 

“ Ah,” cried Kettle, “ now you are a man who 
can keep his head in a bit of a fluster, and by 
James you’re the only one on board. Just tum- 
ble forward, will you, and get down into that 
hold? See what’s wrong.” 

Onslow nodded and turned to go without a word. 
From two or three of the men a thin cheer rose 
as he passed them, and before he had gained the 
bottom of the ladder on to the iron lower deck, 
half a dozen were on the top rungs after him. 
Sailors will seldom refuse to follow when a su- 
perior shows the way ; and besides, these fellows 
were getting over their first panic, and were be- 
ginning to be ashamed of themselves for giving 
way to it. 

The mizzen trysail was not then set, and be- 
cause the steamer’s way had left her, she was 
falling off into the trough, and rolling bulwarks 
under to every sea. She was shipping water 
fast. The creaming, solid masses sluicing across 
the deck-plates smote the men breech high with 
the weight of rams ; and he who, when the waters 
were upon him, left his hold, would have been 
9 


130 


Honor of Thieves. 


swept like a cork to leeward. But, by the hatch- 
coamings, the winches, and odd wet streamers of 
rope, they clawed their way forward, and cowered 
round the great hole made by the explosion, 
holding there by the edge of the twisted, riven 
plates. The seas creamed over their heads, fall- 
ing in noisy cascades into the blackness below, 
and from out of that darkness, above all the bel- 
lowing of wind and the clanging of iron and the 
other din, came a sodden whistling of water, 
which seemed to confirm the worst fears. 

“ Pooh ! said some one, trying to be cheery, 
that’s only the small sup she’s shipped since the 
hatches were blown off. The bilge pumps’ll soon 
kick that drop overboard.” 

“ Guess you lie,” said another, with a weary 
shake of the head. 

Then the ink of the heavens overhead was 
splashed with a vivid fork of lightning, and the 
men saw Onslow, with his face as white as his 
teeth, lowering himself over the brink, and grip- 
ping with his knees a twisted iron pillar below. 
The light above slapped out, and within the dim, 
jagged outline of where the hatch had been all 
was blackness. And overhead the thunder rum- 
bled like the passing of a Titan’s gun-train. The 
men shivered. One of them, an old, white- 
haired able-seaman, was physically sick. And 
meanwhile the Port Edes rolled through forty- 


A Dereliction. 


131 

two degrees, and the Gulf water flowed in green 
and black over each bulwark alternately. 

The men hung over the dark abyss of the hatch 
listening intently, and above the noises of the 
gale they could hear the sullen wash of water in 
the hold growing heavier and more sullen with 
every roll. Another flash of lightning blazed 
out overhead, painting white the shaft of the 
hatch, and showing at its foot a muddy sea, full 
of floating straws, and barrel staves, and litter. 
Onslow was out of sight. And the lower hold 
was afloat almost to its deck-beams. 

But presently the explorer returned, swimming 
rather than walking — as another flash showed 
them — and he leaped to the battens which made 
the stairway to overhead with the haste of a man 
who knows that the waste of moments may well 
cost human lives. The men clustered about him 
round-eyed as he gained the deck for a word of 
what he had seen, but he brushed through them 
roughly and made for aft. It seemed to them 
that no spoken sentence could have given a 
worse report of what had befallen than this mute 
action. The fellows knew that offlcers always 
made the best of ever3^thing, if there is a best to 
be made ; and so the silence was terribly 
suggestive. 

At the same moment, as if to confirm their worst 
fears, the steamer took a heavy sea clean over 


Honor of Thieves. 


132 

her forecastle head ; and above the din of the 
water, as it came cascading down into the lower 
deck, there arose wild cries of, “ She’s sinking ! ” 
'' Her bottom’s blown out ! ” “ She’s settling by 

the head ! ” 

Yelling these tidings, the men scampered back 
to the bridge-deck, where, saving for the few 
driven off to set the mizzen trysail, all the rest 
of the steamer’s complement were collected. 

“ She’s settling by the head ! It’s making a 
clean breach over her this minute ! She’ll be 
down with us if we don’t look quick! ” 

Then another voice cried : “ Let the foul old 
tramp go to hell by herself. She shan’t drown 
me, for one, while she’s got a boat that’ll swim. 
Come along, boys ! ” Whereupon a mixed half- 
dozen of deck-hands and firemen made a rush for 
the foot of the upper bridge ladder. 

At the head of that ladder stood Captain Ket- 
tle, grinning like a tortured fiend. The crew were 
acting precisely as it had been planned that they 
should act. They were doing what a laboriously- 
formed plot had compelled them to do. But at 
that moment the little captain’s weakness for bat- 
tle nearly got the better of him, and was within 
an ace of making him attempt to upset the entire 
apple-cart. The idea of his men — the despised 
all-nation rabble, whom he had brow-beaten into 
subjection all across the broad Atlantic — taking 


A Dereliction. 


133 

the initiative into their own hands now, was too 
much for him to swallow in a single dose. Sooner 
than submit, he would have ruined everything 
ten times over. Consequently he drew on the 
first man who advanced up the ladder, and his 
eyes lit up with the steady, passionless glare of 
slaughter. 

The fellow was brave enough — desperate, too, 
as a man could be — but upon certain death he 
hesitated to advance. Indeed, when Kettle, com- 
ing down the ladder himself, thrust him furiously 
back with a black pistol muzzle, he retreated to 
the bridge-deck, as did those who were with 
him. 

But the other men of that worthy crew had no 
mind to be tyrannized over any longer when the 
steamer was momentarily settling down under 
their feet, and drowning was an immediate ques- 
tion. By the funnel stays and by one another’s 
backs they swarmed on to the top of the fiddley, 
and thence gaining the boat platforms, set about 
cutting adrift the grimy awnings with their knives, 
and clearing away the tackles and falls. They 
shipped rudders and fitted the plugs, and one or 
two, with more forethought than their frightened 
fellows, shouldered the boats’ water-breakers and 
took them aft to where the condenser-tap gave 
upon the lower deck. 

Kettle did not interfere. He had held the 


134 


Honor of Thieves. 


bridge-deck ladders against all comers, and in 
some cranky way felt that his honor was un- 
smirched. But he gave no help, no hint, no fur- 
ther order, and surveyed the scene with folded 
arms and a sour, thin smile. Patrick Onslow, be- 
ing moved by a different set of feelings, acted 
more humanely. 

Take time, men,” he sung out coolly, “if you 
will be cowards and leave the ship. I don’t think 
she’ll sink — at any rate not yet.” 

The men had knocked away the chocks, hoisted 
the boats, and swung the davits outboard. 

“ Keep your heads, you trembling idiots ! Pass 
your painters forward before you begin to lower, 
and don’t lower till you’ve victualled the boats. 
You’ve at least a hundred-and-fifty mile run before 
you can make Charlotte Harbor, which is your 
best port with this wind blowing ; and as like as 
not you’ll miss your road when you get inshore 
among the keys and reefs, and be a week getting 
there.” 

A few of the men, seeing the force of this, ran 
below and raided the galley and the steward’s 
store-room of what they could lay hands upon. 
But they only brought up one load of tins. They 
were frightened lest the others should in their 
terror go off without them. So they bundled 
their gleanings pell-mell on to the floor gratings, 
and, with a dozen men in each, the boats began to 


A Dereliction. 


135 

lower away. When they touched water, the falls 
were let go to overhaul as they chose, and then 
unhooked. The boats rode by their painters, 
swooping on one sea up to the level of the bridge- 
deck, diving twenty feet down in the next trough, 
and lying in very great danger of being stove to 
pieces. 

A man in each was standing by the painter, 
others were getting out oars. 

“ Where’s the donkeyman ? ” cried some one. 

*‘And Mr. Onslow?” 

‘‘And the skipper?” 

“ Oh, in the boat.” 

“ Then cast off. We’ve got all, and we must be 
clear of the ship before she founders, or she’ll take 
us down too in her wash.” 

The painters were slipped, and from either 
beam the steamer’s lifeboats diverged under the 
backing impulse of their oars. Out of sight of 
one another they dropped astern, and each pick- 
ing a favorable chance, they slewed round in a 
pother of spray. 

Then they stepped their masts ; and then, one 
under a jib, and the other under close-reefed lug, 
they drove away before the wind, leaving the set- 
ting of a course for after consideration. 

Steamer sailors are not used to small-boat sail- 
ing in a heavy sea, and it takes them some time 
to wear down the novelty of it. By a provi- 


Honor of Thieves. 


136 

dence, there was the second mate in one, an old 
North Sea smacksman, to take the tiller, and an 
able seaman from the same school in the other 
boat, who was also competent to manage her. 
The boats were built for the weather, but they 
required handling ; and excepting these two men, 
there were no others up to the task. The rest 
trimmed ship, some of them baling, some too 
frightened to do anything but cling on to a thwart 
— these last from the fireholds mostly — and with 
their complements in this danger and disorder, 
the Port Edes two lifeboats drove away into the 
night and the north-north-east. 

Threomen on the steamer, from inside the chart- 
house, watched the boats go away ; and one of 
them, the donkeyman, was wondering what kind 
of fool to call himself for being left 


Three for Twenty-Seven. 


137 


CHAPTER XIII. 

THREE FOR TWENTY-SEVEN. 

“ Now, my lads,” said Kettle, you’ve got to 
hump yourselves, or we’ll have the steamer 
swamping beneath us. It’ll be touch and go, 
anyway. Mr. Onslow, you will have the deck 
all to yourself — after you’ve done your job on 
the forehold, of course ; and you’d better jump 
lively after that at once. Every gill of water 
tells now, and it strikes me if we get very much 
more of the Mexican Gulf on board the decks 
will blow up, and she’ll go down like kentledge 
ballast.” 

Onslow darted away through the doorway. 

“ And now. Mister Sullivan, understand that 
although I still continue to rate as skipper of this 
craft, for the present I’m going to work as fire- 
man and coal-trimmer. You will be chief en- 
gineer; and I’m the sum total of your crew; 
and between us we’ve got to do the work of 
seven horses and one mule. Are the bilge-pumps 
clear ? ” 

“ Yes, sor.” 


138 Honor of Thieves. 

“ And has she still a good head of steam ? 

“ She has. None’s been blown off.” 

‘‘Then pick up your feet and let’s go to your 
hardware shop and start in work.” 

“ Wait a bit, sor,” said the donkeyman. 
“ There’s things here I don’t understand. “ Aren’t 
the lives of us in beastly danger ? Didn’t them 
boats go off because the steamer’s sinking? ” 

“ Do you,” retorted Kettle, “ consider me one 
of those fancy sorts of maniac, who have no 
wish to survive the loss of a ship? I tell you I 
should have been drowned eight times already if 
that had been my lay. No, Mr. Chief, fairfight^s 
right enough, and I’d stand up to Nick in that, 
and value my life at less than a rice-mat ; but, at 
other times, you bet. I’m no fool to chuck it 
away.” 

“ But,” said the donkeyman, “what gets me’s 
this. If the blooming steamer’s bottom’s shot 
out, what’s the fun in messing with it? The 
Mexican Gulf will circulate through that hole 
longer than our bilge-pumps will run.” 

“You tire me,” said the little man. “Who 
said she’d her bottom blown out? I tell you 
this steamer was sunk a few plates above her 
usual trim — for reasons ; and now we are going 
to pull her up again. See here, do you take the 
synch from me, Mr. Chief, and ask no more 
questions, and you’ll get told no lies. It’ll pay 


Three for Twenty-Seven. 139 

you. If you do as you’re bid aboard of me 
you’ll have sovereigns enough given you to work 
through the biggest spree that was ever spread 
out in a seaport town.” 

The big donkeyman appreciatively drew the 
back of a hand across his muzzle. 

‘‘Ah, Captain dear,” he said coaxingly, “ I’d 
just like to hear ye mention a figure.” 

“ Call it two ten-pound notes.” 

“ Then, be Christopher, I’m yer man for any 
piece of devilment in the calendar 1 Come along. 
Captain dear. ’Tis a melojious little man y’ are, 
for all they say against yez.” 

Meanwhile the steamer was becoming more and 
more waterlogged with every plunge and roll, 
and Patrick Onslow feared that his dangerous 
stratagem for driving away the crew had been 
carried too far. It seemed to him impossible 
that they could salvage her now. True, she was 
brought up to the wind by the after-canvas, and 
her rollings were not of such sickening strength ; 
but the stern loomed high in the wild night air, 
and the bows lunged deep into every successive 
sea that rolled up from the stormy south, taking 
green water over the forecastle head in masses 
which scoured anchors and windlass to the 
naked iron. 

The wash found its way below through that 
jagged gap in the lower deck in crashing water- 


140 


Honor of Thieves. 


falls, and every moment, too, the opened valve 
beside her keel was gushing in fresh gallons to 
the swamping holds. Any larger sea which 
swept up now might well settle over her solidly, 
and launch her with bursted decks on to the 
sponges and the coral growths a hundred fathoms 
below. 

Some men, in the face of such conditions, 
would have been mazed, helpless — physically in- 
capable, in the presence of that solitude, of mak- 
ing any necessary effort ; for it is one thing to do 
a desperate matter before the eyes of an applaud- 
ing crowd, and another when the Devil below is 
your only appreciative onlooker. It would have 
been beyond the capabilities of Captain Kettle, 
for instance. Onslow, however, was the one 
man in the million to whom the adventure was 
as meat and drink. If he succeeded, then the 
profit was his ; if he failed, death would be use- 
ful to him ; and anyway there was the wild ex- 
citement of the moment, which was a meal to be 
enjoyed, and one which nothing could snatch 
away. 

It was in this mood of mind that the man on 
whose actions the very outer-air existence of the 
Port Edes depended left his fellows in the chart- 
house, and raced forward to where the jagged 
lip of the forehold hatch yawned to the swilling 
seas. Without lantern, without so much as a 


Three for Twenty-Seven. 141 

look before him, he lowered himself on to the 
twisted battens below, with the clean water rain- 
ing on to him from above, and muddy wavelets 
squirting up from beneath ; and then when the 
steamer gave a heavy send, and the more solid 
wash from the hold smote him heavily upon the 
thighs, he loosed his grip, and dived like a stone 
through the brimming shaft-way of the hatch. 

Seconds passed, a minute, two minutes, and 
still he did not re-appear. Three minutes. Then 
the rounded outlines of something black rolled 
to the surface, and surged about limply with the 
swill of the water. 

For a while it stayed so ; then, swung by a 
heavier pitch of the steamer, it was washed to 
the back of a stanchion, where it hung. The 
slopping water beneath ebbed steadily. The 
valve in the steamer’s bottom had been closed. 
Her bilge pumps were running at speed. 

During. a whole hour Patrick Onslow lodged 
behind that iron pillar, a mere boneless mass of 
flesh and clothes ; and then the pains of life 
came into him again with shivers and shudder- 
ings. The thin gray light of the dawn was filter- 
ing down through the jagged opening above 
when first the trembling lids slid from his eye- 
balls ; but for still another thirty minutes he 
was a thing of no wit, breathing truly, but caring 
naught for all the world contained. 


142 


Honor of Thieves. 


Then a sucking, sobbing noise from the depths 
of the hold far beneath broke upon his ear, and the 
languid brain began to work. With an effort he 
sat up, dizzily holding to the pillar, trying to 
think where he was, and how ran recent history ; 
and by degrees the details strolled back to him. 
Before, however, he had gathered all his senses, 
ora working quantum of strength, he had a visitor 
in the shape of the donkeyman, who clattered up 
over the decks with plate-shod boots, and crouched 
beside the gap above on knees and hands. 

“ Have you been getting hurt, now? ” inquired 
this new-comer. 

“ About nine-tenths drowned, I fancy, if that 
counts. But Fm pretty near all right again 
now.” 

Ye don’t look ut,” replied the donkeyman 
candidly. “ Barrin’ the tan, ye’d be blue and 
lard color about the face this minute. But I 
feared there was something wrong through not 
seeing ye on the bridge, so I nipped into the chart- 
room and pockutted a whisky-bottle that was 
lying convenient — in case. Pull at the small end, 
sor.” 

The bottle was handed down, and Onslow lifted 
it, his teeth chattering against the nozzle like 
castanets ; but the spirit drove up color into his 
face, and set the sluggish blood once more on its 
appointed journey through his limbs and trunk. 


Three for Twenty-Seven. 143 

“What has happened since I left you?” he 
asked. 

“ Well, first, sor, the captain and meself had a 
little friendly discussion about what’s been hap- 
pening, and came to a bit of a financial agreement. 
But I will say that I figured me new terms very 
low when I understood it was a thrifle of a con- 
spiracy that ye wanted me to stand in at. And 
then, sor, we went below to the engine-room and 
turned steam into the bilge pumps, to heave this 
nasty slop of water overboard ; after which, as 
chief, I set about making a thrifling repair to the 
low-pressure engine. Ye see, when that explosion 
took place, a bit of a casting jumped into the 
crank-pit, and got jammed there hard before they 
could stop her. I’ve had a fair do at elbow work, 
cutting it out cold ; but it’s clear now, and she 
runs as sweetly as she did the day she left the 
shops. But oh, Mr. Onslow, I wish you could 
see the Old Man. The sight of that little chap, 
shoveling coals, and swearing, and tumbling, and 
burning himself, is enough to make the ghosts of 
some dead firemen I know about grin and dance 
sand-jigs in their graves.” 

The donkeyman was inclined to be garrulous, 
and evidently lusted for a considerable chat ; but, 
with returning strength, Onslow’s anxiety grew 
on him again, and he climbed out on deck keen 
to be once more in action. His knees were tot- 


144 


Honor of Thieves. 


tery, and the donkeyman gave him an arm aft. 
But when he had climbed up the ladder and 
gained the bridge deck, he stood for a minute 
staring, and then threw up his hands and pitched 
forward on to the planking, as though a bullet had 
bitten the life in his brain. 

The big donkeyman also was startled. Out of 
the morning mists of the south there had come 
up a small center-board schooner of some fifteen 
tons — an oysterman, perhaps, in the season, and 
now a sponge-gatherer or a mere coaster. She 
was coming down over the seas dry as a gull, 
driving along under her boom foresail and jib. 

The donkeyman’s eye hung on her as she surged 
past the rust-streaked flank of the steamer, some 
twenty fathoms away, not because the sight of a 
little white-painted schooner was new to him, not 
because he was impressed by the danger to the 
Port Edes enterprise in her being seen by any 
alien eye, but on account of the tiny vessel being 
handled (in what to her was distinctly ugly 
weather) by so extraordinary a person as a young 
and pretty girl. No one else was on deck, and 
the girl sat on the coaming of the cockpit, tiller 
in one hand, tiller rope in the other, as uncon- 
cernedly as though she had been an ancient 
mariner, bred and aged in fore-and-afters. 

She was a girl, too, with looks much to the 
Irishman’s liking : with copper-red hair, whose 


Three for Twenty-Seven. 145 

ends blew out from beneath a green Italian’s 
nightcap ; laughing, impudent features, with the 
color whipped up into warm pinks by the wind ; 
a figure of pretty curves ; and the shapeliest little 
brown fists in the world splayed on the tiller and 
gripping the restraining tiller-rope. She was 
fairly well up to the eyes in her steering, but she 
found time to throw an oeillade towards the 
steamer, which Mr. Sullivan answered with a yell 
intended to show his complete admiration, and a 
swirl of his greasy cap. It was then that Onslow 
fell, and the donkeyman took his eyes from the 
schooner, and picked him up and once more ap- 
plied the whisky-bottle. “ More drowned than 
I thought for!” he muttered. “It’ll be a pig’s 
mess for us if he goes ill.” 

But Patrick Onslow had not fainted through 
the effect of his recent struggle with death. It 
was quite another matter which had dealt him the 
sufficing shock. 

In the steerer of that little schooner he had 
seen the sister of the woman to whom he had once 
been affianced, who had discarded him for another 
man, who had driven him from a sedate English 
life to be a wanderer and a vagabond upon the 
face of the earth. His roamings had begun and 
continued only because the image of this one 
woman had refused to leave his thoughts ; and 
the half-sarcastic nickname of “ The Great Trav- 
10 


146 Honor of Thieves. 

eler ” had been gained without any seeking on 
his part. 

Five long desperate years had passed since the 
blow fell upon him, and time was doing its work. 
He had begun to forget her; to promise himself 
that, this present enterprise accomplished, he 
would eliminate the past, and lead a different and 
cleaner life ; and yet, here, on the most unlikely 
corner of God’s earth, her sister passed like a 
stage figure before his eyes — the sister from whom 
she was never parted. 

The shock came upon him as a thunderbolt 
from a blue sky. He had fancied her to be in 
England, Europe, Australia — anywhere but here. 
In his weak state the surprise was too great. 
Again the gush of the waters thundered in his 
ear ; again the light faded from his eyes ; and 
this time he dived into blank unconsciousness. 


A Pirates’ Harbor. 


147 


CHAPTER XIV. 

A PIRATES’ HARBOR. 

Windless swell and a burning sky. Ahead, 
broken palings of mop-headed tree-trunks grow- 
ing straight across the sea ; on one beam, scat- 
tered patches of white, where the surf crumbled 
over hidden coral reef ; on the other, the bright 
blue water of the Mexican Gulf, with its yellow 
floating tangles of weed. A steamer lunging 
through the rollers at a small six knots. 

On her decks was visible one man, and one 
alone, and he was on the upper bridge, with his 
fists on the spokes of the steam steering-wheel. 
He was swaying with weariness, his eyes were 
dull and leaden, his cheeks were of an unwhole- 
some yellow, because the tan would not let them 
turn pale white. Yet his task was one which put 
to the strain every piece of his alertness. He 
was taking a steamer drawing nineteen feet 
through a channel of whose very existence no 
man on earth besides himself had ever guessed ; 
and already he was deep in sea-territory which 
the charts of 1893 still mark as “unsurveyed.” 
He had vaguely found the channel some months 


Honor of Thieves. 


148 

before in an open boat, and written cross compass- 
bearings on the back of a crumpled envelope. 
These he carried in his head now, and used as the 
sea-marks closed ; but they were a frail reed for 
much dependence. 

For such work a leadsman is an absolute neces- 
sity ; and on board the Port Edes a leadsman was 
an absolute impossibility. The remaining two of 
her manning were working as ten men to keep up 
any head of steam for her engines. And so 
Patrick Onslow took his soundings with eye and 
nostrils, as do some of the more ancient of the 
coaster folk ; and instinct did not, upon the whole, 
serve him badly. Twice he scoured the steamer’s 
bottom plates over branching coral plants, which 
broke away with clattering jars,and let her through 
to deeper water ahead ; and once he ran upon a 
tail of white sand, which pinned her just for- 
ward of ’midships. But he rang off the engines, 
waited till the scream of the escape-pipe showed 
a full head of steam, and then on a flowing 
tide put her full speed astern, and slid clear. 

The skipper in the stokehold below waxed 
blasphemous at the man who had ‘‘ got the shore 
on board ; ” but he did not cease from shoveling 
coals ; neither did the big donkeyman, save at 
those moments when the clang of the telegraph- 
bell called him to stand by the throttle or revers- 
ing gear in the engine-room. 


A Pirates’ Harbor. 


149 

So the Port Edes drew up this narrow, unknown 
sea-river, through the shallows which fill that 
bight of the S. W. Floridan coast, and the tired 
man who was governing her steered every hour 
with stronger confidence and duller consciousness. 
Now he held on to what was apparently an un- 
broken line of surf, where, if the steamer struck, she 
would be a stove-in wreck within the hour ; but 
as she closed with it a passage opened out which 
took her through in clear water, although the 
yeasty surges of the backwash would leap like 
live things far up her sides, and scream and 
bellow through the scuppers. Now he dodged, 
with helm hard a-starboard one minute, hard to 
port the next, amongst an archipelago of un- 
named keys, where the first mangrove trees were 
getting to work at building these outlying scraps 
of animal stone into part of the North American 
continent. 

Beyond was a broad, smooth lagoon, shimmer- 
ing in the sunlight, dancing with little silver 
waves, and beyond, again, was a wall of woodwork 
growing in one solid mass of trunks from behind 
the tangle of slimy mangroves which sprawled 
along the water’s edge. Bare land was to be seen 
nowhere ; all was blotted out by the rank luxuri- 
ance of the subtropical flora. 

The steamer held on her course athwart this pla- 
cid sea-lake, aiming straight as a rifle-shot for what 


Honor of Thieves. 


150 

appeared to be the densest part of the forest. 
But as she neared it, an overlapping cape gradually 
distinguished itself from the rest of the greenery, 
and directly afterwards banks of milky sand 
opened out, with a gut of river between them. 

Onslow steered on, sitting upon the grating 
now, and holding the wheel one-handed by the 
lower spokes ; and in the fat, hot stew of the 
stokehold below. Kettle and the donkeyman 
shoveled coal to the light of reeking slush-lamps 
and the tune of furnace-roar. 

The steamer, in grip of the river-stream, swung 
round the bights and twistings, finding deep 
water everywhere, though often she could not 
make the turn quickly enough, and bruised with 
her forefoot the slimy mangrove-stems which 
marked the bank. But the current was strong, 
and each time swept her clear, and those below 
were scarcely conscious of the graze. 

Knot by knot, the brine of the Mexican Gulf 
was being left behind, and the noises of the 
woods and odors of the trees and the swamps 
were closing in upon them. The swell fanning 
out from the steamer’s wake wetted the alligators 
in their basking-places behind the sawgrass ; and 
the reek from her smoke-stacks scared the stilt- 
legged waterfowl afish in the shallows. She 
coasted round a bayou of black water, walled in 
by stern ranks of cypress-trees ; she cut across 


A Pirates’ Harbor. 




151 


another with graceful-leaved palmetto-scrub on 
either hand, and ragged cabbage-palms sprouting 
out from above. And then she swung again 
where the river forked, and steamed down a 
straight, unswerving water-line, which led to the 
very heart of the Everglades. 

But the pace was slowing now ; slowing, indeed, 
till the steamer would hardly steer against the 
current, which ever and anon gripped her by the 
head or the tail, and carried her with sullen sheer- 
ings on to mangrove cluster or tree-clad bluff. 
And the reason was that the head of steam was 
failing. Captain Owen Kettle, as more Christian 
men have done before, ignored his own previous 
preachings when the application came in, and 
proved only human soon after he had taken up 
the role of fireman. Driven half lunatic by the 
hjeat and the work, he kept dipping his lips in the 
water-bucket, and drinking heavy draughts. As 
a consequence, that unpoetical complaint, cramp 
in the stomach, overtook him at last, and tied 
him into those ungainly knots of torture which 
he had so frequently observed upon scientifically 
in others. But, as there was no one at hand to 
administer the heroic remedy of chlorodyne cum 
rhubarb cum laudanum cum pill, and give him 
something else to think about, in the original 
kind of knots he remained. 

The donkeyman, with a hearty Belfast curse, 


152 


Honor of Thieves. 


tried to do double work ; but, as he had been 
laboring quite to the top of ■ his strength for 
many hours previously, the effort did not meet 
with unqualified success. As anyone with less 
dogged, wooden pluck might have known, it is 
impossible for one man to fire a twelve-furnace 
steamer, wheel himself coal from the bunkers, and 
act as engineer and greaser when required, how- 
ever great be the initial supply of brute force 
with which God has endowed him. Every time 
he wiped the wet from his eyes and looked at the 
steam-gauge, it had climbed down since the time 
before ; and however furiously he might heave 
new fuel on to the caking clinkers, that jumping 
index would continue its downward crawl. 

The oiled rumbling of the engines slowed, and 
grew more sluggish, and then the ponderous 
cranks took to stopping on a turn, as though to 
gain strength for the next round. But this did 
not go on for long. The donkeyman felt a gentle 
heave of the foot-plates beneath him, and then a 
heel which was not recovered. “ And begor ! ” 
said he, “ the bucking old tramp’s tuk the ground 
at last, thanks be ! ” 

He pitched his shovel through a dull glowing 
furnace-door, and turned to where the little Cap- 
tain was lying on the polished foot-plates, holding 
a yellow, flaring slush-lamp before him to -see 
through the stifling, dusty gloom. 


A Pirates’ Harbor. 153 

“ Gum ! ” he exclaimed, “ the Old Man looks 
pretty sick. I’ll crane him up in the ash-lift.” 

This he did, and took his commanding officer 
into the main cabin, where the air was bright and 
baking, and the mosquitoes were biting like dogs. 
Then, throwing back the lid of the medicine- 
chest (which stood beside the door into the com- 
panion way), he gazed appreciatively at the rows 
of bottles, unstoppered one or two and sniffed at 
their contents, and then slammed down the lid 
again as a thought struck him. 

“ No,” he said, “ I’m blistered if I do ! Red 
Kettle wouldn’t give me physic last time I thought 
I’d like a dose, an’ now I’ll see how he fancies get- 
ting round on nothing. Fair play’s a jool. I’ll 
just report to the pilot, an’ then turn in.” 

The “ pilot,” however, when the donkeyman 
had wearily hauled himself on to the upper bridge 
and stood by his side, proved to be so dead asleep 
that no amount of shouting or shaking would 
wake him. Even the flies did not make him 
wince. 

“ Sor, wake or ye’ll be sunstrook, if ye’re not 
that already. Rouse, sor ; I can’t lug ye below, 
an’ I can’t rig an awnin’. I’m too tired to spake 
again ; but if yez stay here ye’ll fry like a rasher 
an’ be ate by flies. There’s a whopping skeeter 
in each of yer eyeholes thisminut, an’ a kind of a 
locust browsing on the end of yer snout. Listen ! 


154 


Honor of Thieves. 


I’m knockin’ wid a l)oot-toe on yer ribs. Well, 
man, now, if ye won’t listen to reason, it’s just 
leavin’ yez I am to stew in yer own juice.” 

The donkeyman clumped heavily back down 
the ladder, and went with weary steps aft along 
the bridge-deck towards his own place. But at 
the break of the deck he paused, spread his grimy, 
shiny elbows on the rail, and indulged in a thin, 
small whistle. 

“ Now here,” he soliloquized, “we have come, 
as the skipper remarked, up an unbeknown drain, 
to which man’s improvements have not been intro- 
juced, and there’s callers turning up already. 
That was the nose of a gaff-taups’l squintin’ be- 
tween those treetops down-stream a minute ago, 
or I’m a Dago. D’ye know, Mr. Sullivan, chief 
of the Port Edes, I’m beginning to think ye’d 
have got better value if ye’d gone cruisin’ off by 
an’ large with the other boys in the lifeboats. 
Thrue, there’s the twenty one-pound notes to 
dhraw, and a daisy of a spree to have if ye can 
get anywhere to have ut ; but ye’ve worked that 
wage out already, me son, an’ it rather seems as 
though there’s more laboriousness to follow.” 

He yawned cavernously. “ ’Tisn’t often I’d say 
‘ No ’ to a bit of a scrimmage, but theatricals are 
not to my taste just now at all. Too much 
overtime ruins the sense of humor.’’ 

He yawned again, and blinked his eyes drearily. 


A Pirates’ Harbor. 155 

“You must turn in now, Mr. Sullivan dear, or 
ye’ll fall down here and be ate alive by the 
skeeters an’ other wild beasts of the forrust ; and 
if the explorers who are underneath that white 
gaff-taups’l want to come aboard here and make 
throuble, so far as you’re concerned they’ll be let.” 

And with that the donkeyman staggered away 
to his room beneath the poop, ^at over the edge 
of his bunk, and was snoring melodiously before 
his head and his heels were on the blanket. 

Meanwhile, a mile lower down, a small center- 
board sloop was turning to windward up the river, 
but making little headway against the current. A 
negro stood in her fore-scuttle, with his elbows 
on the deck. Two others sprawled on either side 
of him. A big white man lay spread-eagled on 
the top of the coach-roof of the cabin, and another 
stood in the cock-pit steering. 

Of all the quintette, the man at the tiller was 
the only one who showed signs of energy, and his 
energy had sulphurous anger mixed with it. He 
was a bowed, shambling creature, with one eye red 
and the other missing, with long, hairy, ape-like 
arms,and with a dumb impediment of speech, which 
threw him into paroxysms of temper every second 
time he opened his lips. Once or twice, when his 
malady struck him voiceless in the middle of a 
sentence, the other white man laughed ; and then, 
when his tongue served him again, the helmsman 


Honor of Thieves. 


156 

would break off from the text and rap out a 
stream of poisonous cursings. 

At last he climaxed these by the only vitupera- 
tion which no American can listen to unmoved, 
and the man on the coach-roof dropped his indo- 
lence like a flash, and was on him before he could 
resist. The aggressor was lusty, and he shook 
the steersman as a big dog shakes a rat, with 
ponderous wrenches ; and because the sloop 
carried a strong weather helm, when the tiller was 
let go, she ran up into the wind with her canvas 
slatting wildly. 

“You snake-mouthed little skunk! you’d say 
that to me, would you ? T thought I learned you 
once before how far you might go. You’ve had 
one eye gouged for this game less’n a month back, 
and if you fling your twisted, stuttering tongue 
at me any more, by gum. I’ll pocket the other ! ” 

The blacks on the fore-deck chuckled and 
spluttered ; but the big man hove an iron bucket 
at them, with curt command to “ quit that ye- 
hawin’,’’ which they did with a yell and a sudden 
veiling of ivory. Then, by an indolent sprawling 
of the arms and legs, he gained his basking-place 
again on the top of the cabin-roof, and once more 
the steersman got the sloop under command. 

The next three boards were made in silence, save 
for the creaking of gear when she went about ; 
and then the one-eyed man broke out again — 


A Pirates’ Harbor. 157 

“ You’re sure it wasn’t a Government bo-o-o-at, 
Hank?” 

“ Government be sugared ! She wasn’t the right 
build, to start with. Besides, if Government knew 
this channel at all, you bet it’d be said so in all 
the papers. And she did know it, or she wouldn’t 
have gone buzzing past at six knots without a 
leadsman. Seems to me someone’s split, and 
she’s some darned Britisher come to cut out our 
game for themselves.” 

“You tire me. Plume-hunting’s illegal by 
these bub-bub-blessed bird laws, and so’s selling 
whisky to Injuns. As it is, we’ve trouble enough 
to sneak in and out of the ’Glades in this sus-sus- 
sus-s-s-lip of a sloop, so how in snakes d’you 

expect they’d do it in a thousand-ton ” 

Here the man’s infirmity blocked his speech 
for a minute. He snarled out : “ Oh, I’ve no use 
for a blank puttyhead like you ! ” 

Hank laughed, and put tobacco into his mouth. 
“ Go it ! ” he said — “ go it, right close to the end 
if you like ; but bring up short of that, or I’ll 
gouge you, sure’s death ! ” 

The steersman grinned a spasm of fury. He 
longed much to use again the unpardonable 
phrase, but he forbore. He felt that his friend 
would be as good as his word. So he ceased 
from speech altogether, and a negro on the fore- 
deck enlivened the silence with the Jordan Hymn, 


158 Honor of Thieves. 

giving full value to every possible shake and 
turn. 

A porpoise surged past them, making for the 
open after a day’s fresh-water fishing, and once or 
twice an alligator’s eyebrows and snout showed 
like knots of black wood floating up against the 
current, for this was territory where the skin- 
hunter’s rifle had not scared them altogether into 
night-work. The sloop’s pace up-stream was small 
and it was not till just before nightfall that she 
rounded a cape where high black pines stood up 
like soldiers on parade around the water’s edge, 
and there saw the intruder. The steamer was 
grounded on a sandbank athwart the stream, and 
lay, with a two-foot list, away from the current. 
Not until they were close aboard of her could those 
on the sloop see the gold lettering on her counter. 

“ B-b-both lifeboats gone ! Say, that’s rum ! ” 
'‘Port Edes^ of London,’ ” Hank read. "Port 
Edesf I seem to know that name.” He swung 
his long legs down over the cabin doorway, and 
sat staring at his companion with open-mouthed 
wonder. “Hallo, Nutt!” he said, “what’s 
wrong now ! I haven’t seen you wear that kind 
o’ face before. You couldn’t look pleaseder if I’d 
said your rich uncle had gone dead. There’s no 
pards of ours aboard of her, is there ? ” 

The one-eyed man’s face was lit up with an 
unholy joy. “Don’t you know?” he stuttered 


A Pirates’ Harbor. 


159 

out. ‘‘ The biz was in all the papers. That steam- 
boat was bringing out half a million of sovereigns. 
Her port was New Orleans ; and she’s got here. 
By gum, I s’pose they think they’re going to 
s-s-steal it all by themselves.” 

Steal ? What do you mean ? ” 

“ Oh, you idiot ! What would they come here 
at all for if it was all right ? ” 

“Who’s they?” inquired Hank. 

“ I gug-gug-guess we shall know that soon,” re- 
turned the one-eyed man grimly. “ Hi, you 
niggers there, forward ! I s’pose you got razors 
hid somehwere in yer pants? ” 

“ Say,” drawled his friend, “ you’d mebbe 
better go slow over this deal, Mr. Billy Nutt. 
The steamer does look asleep, but if you start 
making your self ugly too soon, somebody may 
wake up and pull off guns at us.” 

“ I’ve been mum-mum-missed before.” 

“ So’ve I, sonny. That’s why there’s all the 
more chance of being hit now. You go slow, 
Billy Nutt ; just go slow. If they see that ugly 
face of yours and hear you talk, somebody’ll 
shoot, sure’s death.” 

“ Shoot or no shoot,” retorted the man at the 
tiller, “ I’m going to have some of their plunder 
before a dozen hours are over, or else be a deader. 
I never had a chance like this in all my life before, 
and I’ll never geg-geg-get another.” 


i6o Honor of Thieves. 

You bet not," agreed his friend. Nor’ll I. 
That’s why I’ll stand in with you over this deal 
down to the last chip. I guess it’s the one soft 
thing I’ve been looking for all through a lifetime. 
I thought once I was going to make my pile out 
of breaking Monte Carlo. Then it was a corner 
in pork. Then we tried to stick up a mail train 
and raid the dollars out of the express car. But 
all these operations kinder weakened when it 
came to the point. I s’pose we didn’t put 
enough jump into them. But we’ll not get 
euchred for want of that here. No, siree. You 
and me, Billy Nutt, ’ll either come out topside 
over this deal, or else die in our boots. You 
hear me. I reckon,’’ he added, in a lower voice, 
we can count well on the niggers, too. They’re 
not exactly a camp-meeting crowd. They’re 
toughs that a racket like this’ll suit as nat’ral as 
chicken-stealing." 

He bent forward over the coach-roof and com- 
municated the scheme to the negroes in a few 
words. The mobile African faces changed like 
children’s. They became savage and animal-like 
The fellow who but a short while before had 
carried such a look of touching devotion as he 
trolled out the Jordan Hymn, ceased almost to 
be human. In a flash he had turned to a lustful, 
savage beast, with glinting yellow eyeballs, grip- 
ping a razor with one black paw and ready to 


A Pirates’ Harbor. 


i6i 


grapple anything with the other. The veneer of 
American civilization had slid from him like some 
tattered wrap. He was a fitting specimen of the 
most dangerous made ’’ race of which this 
world can at present boast. 

Even Hank was half alarmed at the furies he 
had unchained. “ See here, fellows ! ” he said, 
as an after-thought. “ Just take care which way 
you run when we get aboard that steamer, and 
don’t get foul of Billy Nutt and me. If you try 
any of your blame’ nigger carving games on us, 
I guess you’ll turn into cold meat quicker’n you 
can wink. Nutt and me are the handiest men 
with guns in this section of Florida.” 

All right, boss ; no shirt ! ” said he of the razor. 

“ Well, I was just telling you,” returned the 
big man. And now, quiet, all hands. If we 
can slip aboard without anybody hailing us, it’ll 
be healthier for us, whatever it may be for other 
people.” 

Once more the noises of the forest, and the oc- 
casional creaking of the sloop’s gear, made up the 
only sounds ; and from beyond the western tree- 
tops the brazen sun took a final glare at them be- 
fore it dived to rest for the night. The negro 
who had been singing the hymn sat on the fore- 
deck, and stropped a razor on the bare sole-leather 
of his foot. The two white men re-charged their 
revolvers. 

II 


i 62 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER XV. 

RESULTS IN LONDON. 

** How awfully ghastly ! ” said Amy Rivers. 

“ Yes,’' said Fairfax ; “ those anarchist people 
ought to be shot down like dangerous wild beasts 
whenever they open their mouths ! Think of it ! 
not only a fine ship, but half a million in specie, 
blotted out of existence by this murderous bomb ! 
It will come fearfully heavy on some of the un- 
derwriters. There will be a black pay-day at 
Lloyd’s when they settle up over this. You 
never saw such excitement as there is in the City. 
Papers were selling at half a crown apiece ! ” 

“ And is it certain that poor Mr. Onslow is 
drowned ? ” 

I’m afraid, practically so. The two lifeboats 
were picked up next morning, and their crews 
taken into Mobile. When they came to count 
heads it was found that the captain and Onslow 
and one of the engine-room hands were missing. 
In the hurry of the escape they seem to have got 
into neither lifeboat. The telegram says that no 


Results in London. 


163 

other boat would have lived a minute in the sea 
that was running at the time, even if one had been 
lowered. And the mate, who writes, does not 
think that this was even attempted, because the 
Port Edes sank before the two lifeboats had driven 
out of sight. We had a private cablegram at the 
office before I left, and that told how other steam- 
ers crossing that part of the Gulf had been on 
the look-out, but up to then not even so much as 
a scrap of wreckage had been sighted. So I fear 
it is past a doubt that she sank like a stone in 
deep water, and took those poor fellows down 
with her.” 

It is horribly sad, especially when one remem- 
bers what I heard this morning, Hamilton. The 
girl Mr. Onslow went wild about six years ago is 
out in Florida this minute, and free. Duvernay, 
the man she married, died six months ago of 
malarial fever. You know Mr. Onslow was en- 
gaged to her just after he left Cambridge and 
went as an attache, and was desperately fond of 
her, as I imagined he could be ; and when her 
people forced her into marrying the other fellow, 
he threw up his post and wandered into all the 
most out-of-the-way corners of the earth to try 
and forget things. What makes me so interested 
is this : I've just found out that she was a Miss 
Mabel Kildare before she was married, and when 
I was a child I used to know her sister Elsie very 


Honor of Thieves. 


164 

well indeed. In fact, I believe we were some sort 
of cousins, and for half a year we had the same 
governess together, and were as intimate as two 
children could be. Then her sister married Mr. 
Duvernay, who had a colonial appointment, and 
Elsie went with them abroad, and we dropped 
completely out of touch with one another. 
Strange, isn’t it, that I should hear of her again 
the same day that brings news of poor Mr. Ons- 
low’s death ? ” 

“ It’s a small world this,” said Fairfax, sententi- 
ously,“ and coincidences are the commonest things 
in it. I suppose in a novel the pair of them ought 
to have come together, and forgiven the past, and 
married, and settled down in a villa residence 
with ivy and clematis attachment, and lived hap- 
pily ever afterwards. Unfortunately, real life is 
balder and far less romantic.” 

“You seem out of spirits,” said his Jianc^ey 
linking her fingers over his arm. 

“ I suppose I am. To begin with, this Port 
business isn’t calculated to enliven one; and 
then, on the top of that. I’ve had another taste 
of your blessed guardian’s business methods, 
which has nearly sickened me out of the office 
altogether. You know about this ‘ Brothers 
Steamship Company ’ which he is trying to float ? 
Well, we had a preliminary meeting to-day — 
quite a thousand people, and all, comparatively 


Results in London. 165 

speaking, poor. They were, for the most part, 
the gang he preaches to on Sunday, with a sprink- 
ling of skippers out of work, and other sea-faring 
folk who had saved a trifle of money. 

“ Shelf commenced the business with prayer, 
which is right enough at its proper time, but 
struck me as being particularly out of place there. 
The audience, however, groaned approval, and 
their confidence in the man seemed to be strength- 
ened. He followed this up with a clever speech 
about the profits to be made out of the modern 
sea-carrying trade, and enlarged upon the notor- 
ious fact that the losses of the business largely 
arose from the lack of interest on the part of the 
ship-masters and other ofificers. This last, he said, 
would be entirely removed in the Brothers S. S. 
Co., because, by the articles of association, no 
man would hold a responsible position on any 
one of their vessels who was not an actual share- 
holder of the company. And then he pointed 
out that there was an eight per cent, dividend 
guaranteed on preference stock, and a certain 
fifteen or eighteen per cent, on the ordinary, and 
wound up with another dose of cant. The com- 
pany, he said, would not be alone content with 
earning income for its bond-holders; it would 
have as its equal object the spreading of the Gos- 
pel and the civilization of England to the utter- 
most parts of the globe. 


Honor of Thieves. 


1 66 

“Then the meeting cheered and amenned, and 
wrote out an application for 10,000 shares then 
and there in the room on forms which were handed 
round ; and down your blessed guardian went on 
his knees again, and prayed for grace to bless his 
efforts ; and when the poor fools dispersed, Mr. 
Theodore Shelf and I drove back to the offices. 

“ ‘ Look here,’ I said to him ; ‘ you’ve put me 
down on the directorate of this thing with a sal- 
ary of .£’1000 a year. I want to resign.’ 

“^What on earth for? ’ 

“ ‘ Oh ! Shall we say I haven’t sufficient loose 
money to take up enough shares ? ’ 

“ ‘ But,’ he said quickly, ‘ you needn’t take up 
many. You can draw your first quarter’s salary 
and pay that back to the company’s bankers on 
your first call. That will qualify you.’ 

No,’ I said, * I’m not going to do that. I’m 
going to be mixed up with this new company in 
no degree whatever. Flatly, I don’t believe in 
the thing one bit. It’s a notorious fact that 
freights are so low just now that thousands of tons 
of shipping is laid up because it can’t be run at a 
profit ; and if you put more in commission, 
freights will tumble down still lower.’ 

“‘You speak from your ignorance,’ he said. ‘ I 
should remind you that I am by far an older man, 
and have a much deeper experience. The busi- 
ness of Marmaduke Rivers and Shelf is a lasting 


Results in London. 167 

monument of what my humble talents can ac- 
complish, and you will some day see for yourself 
the newer company on an equal footing. Did 
you not notice what enthusiastic confidence in its 
prosperity those humble friends of mine showed 
this afternoon ? ’ 

“ ‘ A fat lot they know about the shipping busi- 
ness,’ said I. ‘ In the mood you worked them up 
to, they’d have believed in an advertising stock- 
broker’s circular if only there were a text at 
the head of the page.” 

“ Shelf pulled the check-string, and his broug- 
ham stopped against the kerb. ‘ Mr. Fairfax,’ 
said he, ‘ your attitude pains me. Let us part 
here for the time, and let us both pray that when 
next we meet you may be in a more Christian 
mind.’ Whereupon out I stepped, and came 
along here to Park Lane. Amy dear, I don’t 
like the look of things at all. The other busi- 
ness, the ‘ Oceanic Steam Transport Company,’ 
as it is called officially, is by no means in a heal- 
thy condition, and, remembering that, it seems to 
me that starting this new company is something 
very nearly approaching a swindle. I believe that 
Theodore Shelf is finding out that he is in low 
water, and is getting desperate.” 

“ I don’t know about the last,” replied the girl, 
thoughtfully ; “ but as for being in low water, 
there I think you are wrong. Every week here 


i68 


Honor of Thieves. 


they seem to spend more money than they did 
the week before. Mrs. Shelf was at a picture sale 
yesterday, and bought two old masters at four 
thousand guineas apiece, and it isn’t likely she’d 
throw away that sum on what is absolutely and 
entirely a luxury unless money were pretty plen- 
tiful with her. 

“ It can’t go on at this pace,” said Fairfax. 
“ I know what the limits of the business are, and 
I’m certain it can’t stand the drain on them which 
all this gorgeousness must entail. Last year the 
profits were almost nil, and yet did Mrs. Shelf re- 
trench at all? Not a bit. She goes in for more 
and more display every week she lives. This 
pace must bring about a wreck, and if the ‘ Oce- 
anic Steam Transport Company ’ goes down, it is 
an absolute certainty that this new ‘ Brothers 
Company ’ will be swamped with it.’ 

And then ? ” 

“ More than a thousand poor people, for the 
most of them old, will find that the savings of a 
lifetime have vanished into nothingness before 
their eyes. It is an awful thing even to think such 
a suspicion against a man ; but the idea is grow- 
ing upon me, and Theodore Shelf saw what I 
thought when he showed me out of his brougham 
this afternoon.” 

“ Then what,” asked the girl in a horrified whis- 
per, will you do ? ” 


Results in London. 169 

“ Nothing. What can I do ? To breathe a 
word of it aloud would be a libel ; and if I did 
not get sent to jail, they would pack me off to 
Hanwell as a malicious madman. Shelf’s name 
is as good as a banknote in the City this day, and, 
for everybody’s sake, I trust that I have wronged 
him foully, and that it may always continue so. 
But, Amy dear, I have a heavy foreboding on me 
that in less than half a year’s time there will be a 
mob of wretched people shooting themselves or 
going to the workhouse because he has ruined 
them, and they haven’t the pluck or the thews 
left to commence life afresh.” 


Honor of Thieves. 


170 


CHAPTER XVI. 

FOR THE BIRTHDAY LIST. 

Mr. Theodore Shelf was 2 . gourmand oi the 
first water. He preached most violently against all 
people who drank to excess, and seemed scarcely 
to discriminate between these and other people 
who were decorously moderate. He included 
them all in one sweeping anathema, and rammed 
home his charges with countless texts always once 
a Sunday, and usually on several weekdays as well. 
He was a powerful exhorter in his own particular 
narrow groove, was Mr. Theodore Shelf, and a vast 
number of people believed in him, and put out 
their savings to usury under his directions. 

But he was, as I say, a gourmand of note. He 
paid his chef £'^00 a year, and would have thought 
himself permanently injured in constitution if his 
truffles by accident happened to be English, and 
not from Perigord Forest. He over-ate himself 
habitually, and made no particular disguise about 
it. There is no influential society to make a na- 
tional sin of bestial overdeeding, or otherwise Mr. 
Theodore Shelf would doubtless have posed as 


For the Birthday List. 171 

an ascetic in public, and — kept biscuits and a jar 
of foie gras beside the brandy-bottle in the safe. 
There wasn’t a man in England who knew better 
how to get the votes of his clique, and their influ- 
ence, and the handling of their money. There 
was not a man in Europe less inclined to mortify 
the flesh or undergo exertion without adequate 
return. 

He was not a vastly clever man, if one came 
to add him up. He had climbed from a humble 
clerkship to a very giddy eminence by the nice 
exercise of three strong faculties. He had great 
discrimination, he was a quick thinker, and he 
was brilliantly unscrupulous. 

When he saw a move that would eventually 
pay him, he had the wit to single it out in an 
instant from a thousand others, and decide on 
the road which led to his own personal profit. 
Then he disregarded the sneers of the well- 
dressed crowd — rather courted them, in fact, 
when they enabled him to pose as a martyr — 
and went in for the project heart, tongue, and 
soul. He could put such beautiful unction into 
the performance that even the most bigoted of 
the enemy never thought of questioning his own 
personal sanctity ; and meanwhile the great 
earnest mob of his followers were chorusing the 
man’s praises with fervor and fanatical zeal. 

It has been stated that Mr. Theodore Shelf was 


Honor of Thieves. 


172 

a man entirely wanting the saving salt of humor. 
But this I think is wrong. When he was alone 
he would take George on his knee, and whisper 
in that small animal’s ear, and call up a sardonic 
expression amongst the smug, sanctimonious lines 
of his face that was not carried there in outer 
life. At times, too, he would even laugh — a new, 
gleeful laugh ; far different from the saintly re- 
proving smile which was the only sign of mirth 
that ever illuminated his features before a more 
talkative confidant. But then George was taci- 
turn ; he could express whole pages by one 
quick pucker of the nose and half a tail-wag ; and 
he was never known to gossip. Perhaps it was 
because he made such a prodigiously safe con- 
fidant that Mr. Theodore Shelf was so fond of 
George. 

In social standing George was not a gentleman. 
Nature had intended him for the professional 
extinction of rats, and given him a preternatural 
gutter cleverness. Fate had him surrounded 
with affluence and regular meals. The pursuit of 
rats was forbidden him ; battles with canine ac- 
quaintances were discouraged ; and his one dissi- 
pation was sneaking away from his residence and 
making love to the barmaid in an adjacent public- 
house in return for biscuits and sugar. As a 
general result he waxed portly, and could look 
upon most kinds of rascality with a lenient eye, 


For the Birthday List. 173 

and perfectly understood why Mr. Shelf’s private 
brandy-bottle lodged in retirement from the public 
view. 

Now, Mr. Theodore Shelf’s dinner parties — as 
sent up by the inventive and excellent chef afore- 
said — were celebrated all over London, which, 
despite all the charges laid against it by Continen- 
tal neighbors, is a city which does contain some 
people who appreciate the exquisite in food. 
Shelf, who despised no means of furthering his 
material interests, naturally traded upon his ce- 
lebrity in this matter, and distributed his dinner 
invitations with a keen eye to some adequate 
return. But he was usually content to leave the 
actual making-up of all parties to his wife. He 
could quite trust her in this matter. She was 
not likely to expend a single cover uselessly. 
She had a wonderfully nice appreciation of the 
main chance. A clever woman, Mrs. Shelf. 

On the night of the day that the Brothers 
Steamship Company was floated she had arranged 
a dinner-table at her house which is destined to 
live down through time. There was a great 
Cabinet Minister present, who, as the chief guest, 
took her down to dinner ; and there was also in 
the room the Ambassador from one of the greater 
Continental Courts, with whom the Minister had, 
after dinner, ten minutes of quiet, informal talk 
in the corner of the drawing-room. That talk laid 


Honor of Thieves. 


174 

the groundwork of a certain international agree- 
ment, afterwards elaborated, which has never yet 
been made public. But some day it will be 
sprung upon Europe with a crash, and a whirl- 
wind of wonder ; and then the papers will refer to 
Mrs. Theodore Shelf’s dinner-table as a manufac- 
tory of history. 

Be it confessed, however, that Mrs. Shelf had 
not asked the two to meet through any high- 
minded wish to better the Empire. She was 
singularly untrammeled by patriotism of that 
variety. The principal Power whose betterment 
she had at heart was the House of Shelf, as con- 
sisting of husband and self ; and when she sat 
down at the head of her table, and watched the 
great Minister next her unfold his napkin, she 
made up her mind to do great deeds that night. 

She did not rush headlong to the attack. She 
had prepared her ground skilfully, and knew how 
to play her game with due deliberation. On the 
other side of the Minister was Amy Rivers — a 
bright, sprightly personage, of whom he was ex- 
tremely fond, and to whose conversation his hos- 
tess cleverly dismissed him before they were half- 
way through the hors d' oeuvres. 

Oysters h la Sibtfrienne followed, and as the 
great man was selecting the plump natives he 
fancied from their tray of ice, he turned round to 
Mrs. Shelf, as though to engage in talk with her. 


175 


For the Birthday List. 

But her time was not yet ripe. The Minister was 
a professed gourmet^ and the wines that night 
were the best the world could produce. Theodore 
Shelf made no objection to these. He professed 
to abstain from wines himself, but he provided 
them for others, as he did billiards. And Mrs. 
Shelf trusted that the glorious vintages would 
sweep the austerity from the Minister’s soul. 

The Minister sipped his Chablis, and his eye 
kindled. 

“ I shouldn’t like,” he said to Amy Rivers, “ to 
be a poor man, and not know people, and not go 
out anywhere. The sweets of life are its pleasant 
surprises. That’s the best wine of its name in 
England this minute.” 

I am not,” replied Miss Rivers, “ going to 
talk food with you. If you want that, you must 
shout down the table at Mr. Shelf.” 

“ Oh, youth, youth ! ” said the Minister, “ how 
much you miss ! At one time I thought Dublin 
porter an excellent tipple to drink with my 
oysters ; and as for you, my dear, you don’t 
trouble your head about it at all. I used to think 
I’d like to marry you, supposing Heaven made 
me single again. But now ” 

“ Now, I suppose, I shall have to put up with 
Hamilton Fairfax, as arranged. Well, there are 
worse fates.” 

You seem to bear up under it wonderfully.” 


Honor of Thieves. 


176 

“ Don’t I ? You can come to the wedding, if 
you’ll promise not to look too woebegone.” 

I sha’n’t come. I shall send you an inexpen- 
sive present with black edges to it.” 

“ So long as it isn’t entree dishes. We’ve tons 
of them already. I thought I’d mention it, be- 
cause one knows how your tastes lie.” 

The great man squeezed lemon on to the last 
of his oysters, and ate it with a satisfied nod of 
the head. 

“Date fixed?” he asked. “If it is, break the 
sad news to me gently. “ Don’t be too cruel.” 

“ The date’s fixed within limits. We’ve bought 
a place to live in : and, if it’s ready, we shall be 
married the day I come of age.” 

“ Bought a place, have you ? Come, this looks 
like business. Where is it ? Got a good cook ? 
Any shooting? Going to ask me down? Be- 
cause, if you do. I’ll come and teach you how to 
make me comfortable.” 

“Yes, I believe you could do that last. Those 
papers which don’t call you the Pope of Politics 
every morning, say you’re the most incapable 
man in Britain in most matters ; but I never 
heard that the most vicious of them ever accused 
you of living in discomfort. You’ve a wonderful 
knack of looking after yourself.” 

“ Haven’t I ? Don’t spoil your health with 
salted almonds ; nibble one of these Riviera 


177 


For the Birthday List. 

olives. Life is made for suiting your own tastes 
as much as possible, and, where practical, making 
your neighbors pay for them. Why isn't Fair- 
fax here to-night ? Are we all too big for him ? ” 
‘‘ Hamilton is away on business, looking after 
the place we're going to buy in Kent. I shall see 
him later. But just now I'm having a holiday," 
said Miss Rivers. “ I wanted to flirt with you. 
You're safe and amusing — amusing, that is, when 
you keep off the memi. Where are ypu going to 
after here to-night ? " 

“ Oh, to a horrible political thing, where we 
shall all be good, and talk humbug, and be bored 
to death. If I hadn't chanced to be in the Cab- 
inet, I should probably have gone to see a prize- 
fight." His eye traveled down the table to where 
Theodore Shelf was looking saintly, with his head 
on one side, and washing his large white hands 
with invisible soap. “ I’d chance it, my dear, and 

go, if I thought I could manage to meet " 

Amy Rivers had followed his glance. She 
turned to him with a demure smile. 

“ Well," she said, who ? " 

“ Oh, just one or two of my colleagues on the 
same side of the House. Hang it all, Amy, the 
fellows can't always be what they set up for in 
front of their clients." 

Miss Rivers laughed. 

“You’re a bold, bad lot," she said. “ I know 

i8 


Honor of Thieves. 


178 

I shall see you in the police-court one of these 
days for breaking lamp-posts, or running away 
with a hansom cab. There’s a vein of wickedness 
in you that’s completely thrown away in a Cab- 
inet Minister.” 

His lordship grinned, and turned to Mrs. Shelf. 
He admired Mrs. Shelf because she was an ex- 
tremely handsome woman. He rather dreaded 
her just now, because he knew she wanted some- 
thing out of him. And he had to talk to her be- 
cause it was policy to do so. 

The complete Art of Spreading Butter is not 
one to be mastered by everybody. In the lower 
grades it is easy : any one can tickle a fool. But 
when the subject has wallowed in all the clever- 
est kinds of flattery for many years of his life, 
then it is a different matter. If you set about 
your work in a clumsy way, he begins at once to 
mildly hate you. If you only half do it, the man 
is resentful because he has not received his due. 

Mrs. Shelf avoided the pitfalls. The great 
Minister stayed suspicious — she could not alter 
that — but she put him in a most excellent humor 
with himself ; and the dinner was surpassing good. 
He took kiimmel and cognac for his liqueur, and 
she watched an ecstasy flicker to his face as he 
drained the little glass. The hum of the talk 
rose high in the room, and her voice met his ear 


For the Birthday List. 179 

alone. He heard her asking that Theodore Shelf 
might be elevated to the House of Lords. 

He put the glass to the table, still holding 
the stem between his fingers. He looked at it 
thoughtfully, shaking his head the while. 

“ My husband is a power you can’t neglect,” 
she continued. “ He always votes straight for 
your party.” 

“Yes, he is one of us,” the Minister admitted 
softly, with a gentle emphasis on the numeral. 

“ So far. But he has his principles to consider. 
He might find it necessary, from the dictates of 
his conscience, to separate himself from you on 
one or two matters in the next session. I’m 
afraid his following would go with him. You 
know he has vast influence with a certain class.” 

The Minister stretched out lazy fingers, and took 
a saltspoon, and made two little neat heaps of 
salt on the table-cloth ; and, after consideration, 
added a third. 

“ Pooh ! ” said Mrs. Shelf, “ there are five cer- 
tain, and I could tell you their names if you didn’t 
know them already. My husband makes six. 
That counts twelve votes on a division. But, of 
course, the Government is strong enough to 
stand it.” 

The Minister thoughtfully built four .salted 
almonds into an arch, and piled two more at the 
back of them. “ Cave ! ” he murmured, and then 


i8o Honor of Thieves. 

with a tap of the finger sprawled them on the 
table-cloth. “ There’s nothing certain in this 
life,” he said. 

“ There are caves and caves ; and some bring 
down Governments. My husband and his followers 
are extreme men, and, as I have heard you say 
yourself, there is no class of creature so resolute 
and bigoted as a fanatic. If once an extreme 
man makes up his mind, all the argument on 
earth will not change him. But perhaps you 
don’t mind a dissolution? Perhaps you’ve done 
so well, and passed so many popular measures 
since you’ve been in power, that you’d like to 
meet the country at once ? ” 

The Minister grinned like a man in pain. “ A 
knighthood,” he said, “ is a very fascinating thing. 
It is the reward of the faithful. I think — I say 
I think — I could lay my hands upon one spare 
knighthood, and might give it away if I saw an 
adequate return.” 

Mrs. Shelf smiled amusedly at the diamonds on 
her comely wrist. 

“ A knighthood ? That’s the thing City men 
have, isn’t it, when they make money by selling 
patent mousetraps, or happen to be Lord Mayors, 
or something like that? Unfortunately, my 
husband would not qualify for a knighthood. 
He is not a small pedler. His — what shall I 
say ? ” 


N 


For the Birthday List. i8i 

“ Operations are more extensive? ” 

Precisely. He does things on a fine scale. 
For instance, he has, as I said, at this very 
moment twelve votes at his command, which 
might make a very considerable difference on a 
division. You see, conscience is a great thing 
with him. He could never neglect it. But if he 
was in the Upper House . . .” 

The great Minister could comfortably have 
shuddered. He was a peer himself, and was jealous 
for his caste. But, as it was, he repressed this 
piece of outward emotion, and contented himself 
with saying “ No," quietly, softly, and with entire 
decision. Then, with a swirl of brilliant talk 
there was no arresting, he deliberately changed 
the conversation. Mrs. Shelf submitted. She 
had another card still to play. And until she 
picked up the ladies with her glance, and led 
them away up-stairs, they two spoke of oranges 
from many points of view. They agreed that 
the large tangerines of Majorca were the only 
oranges fit to eat in England, and discussed the 
various means of getting them imported vid 
Marseilles without suffering them to lose more 
than a fraction of their flavor. 

The Minister, fatuous man, thought that she had 
given in to him, and chuckled inwardly at his 
victory, and when the ladies had gone, he turned 
to his next-door neighbor and talked on the ethics 


i 82 


Honor of Thieves. 


of Irish cock shooting with a light and easy mind. 
But for the next move in the drawing-room he 
was frankly unprepared. He had come to Park 
Lane on the clear understanding that a tete-a4ite 
was to be contrived for him with the Ambassador ; 
for it is in this way that the great treaties which 
dally with the fate of nations receive their birth- 
push. I do not say that the matter of peace or 
war depended upon that interview ; but sufficient 
hung on it to make the great Minister very 
anxious, because he had been deputed by his col- 
leagues in the Cabinet to bring this thing about, 
and had solemnly undertaken the charge. 

And, lo ! the chance of this momentous minute’s 
chat was to be withheld. Mrs. Shelf, calm, clever, 
magnificent, came to his elbow the moment he 
entered the drawing-room, and stayed there. He 
was frosty, he was inattentive, he was almost 
rude, but he could not shake her off. She was 
cool, insistent, fluent. She made him sit on a 
sofa by her side, and laughed almost openly at 
the attempts he made to shake loose from his 
bondage. 

At last he broke off in the middle of an aimless 
sentence, and looked her between the eyes. She 
returned the glance most squarely. There was a 
pause between them, and then — 

By the way, baronetcy ? ” he murmured. 

It was nothing on earth to do with what they 


For the Birthday List. 183 

had been speaking about the minute previously, 
but the sentence did not require a footnote to 
explain it further. 

“ H’m! ” she said. When?’’ 

“ In the next Birthday List.” 

“Thanks. Now you go into the further draw- 
ing-room and talk to the Ambassador, and I will 
clear the people away. I suppose ten minutes 
will be enough ? ” 

“ Ample,” said the great Minister, rising. Then 
he added : “ By Jove! you are a clever woman. 
You’re cleverer than your husband.” 

“ I know I am,” said Mrs. Shelf. 


184 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

IN THE MATTER OF A TRUST. 

“Mr. Fairfax, sir, to see you.’' 

“ Say that I cannot see him.” 

The butler hesitated a moment, and then 
begged Mr. Shelf’s pardon, and hinted that Fair- 
fax seemed to have anticipated some such mes- 
sage. 

“ He said, sir, I was to explain it was on very 
important business, or he would not have called 
so late at night. And he said, too, sir ” — here 
the butler hesitated again — “ that he must see 
you.” 

“ Tell him ,” Shelf began passionately ; but 

there he stopped, and the rest of the sentence was 
lost. Fairfax had Avalked into the room. 

The butler stood his ground, glancing with 
nervous respect from one to the other, till Shelf 
waved him to the door, through which he vanished 
noiselessly, with an apologetic sigh of relief. Then 
the other two faced one another. 

“I must say, sir,” the shipowner began, with 
icy politeness, “ that after what has occurred be- 


In the Matter of a Trust. 185 

tween us this day your intrusion strikes me as 
vastly wanting in taste. Of course, as a Christian, 
it has been my duty to forgive you the injurious 
thoughts which you bore against me ; but, as a 
frail human man, I confess to have been so 
wounded by them that the sight of you tempts 
me to the sin of anger afresh. But, perhaps, sir, 
you have come here to express contrition, and to 
ask that I will hand back the resignation of the 
directorate which you so rudely thrust upon me.” 

have come,” replied Fairfax, shortly, “for 
neither one thing nor the other.’ I am not calling 
upon you in your City capacity at all. I want to 
speak with you in your position of trustee to the 
lady whom I am now shortly going to marry.” 

“ She has sent you ? ” 

“ She is perfectly aware of my errand. A pro- 
perty in Kent has suddenly come into the market 
which will go for a comparatively low sum for 
cash down. I have been spending the day ex- 
amining it, and meanwhile my solicitor has been 
going through the deeds. The place will suit us 
to the ground, and the title is as clear as could be 
wished for.” 

“ So you wish to buy this property with your 
wife’s money ? ” Shelf asked with a sneer. 

“ I am not disguising from myself the fact that 
Amy is an heiress. At the same time, T am not 
altogether a pauper myself. But I don’t think 


Honor of Thieves. 


1 86 

we two need go into that part of the money ques- 
tion, Mr. Shelf. As a point of fact (as you know 
quite well), she and I first met one another abroad, 
and fell in love, and got engaged without knowing 
a single word about our mutual outlook, social or 
financial. The point here is that Amy wants to 
become part purchaser in this Kent property with 
myself, and on her behalf I come to you for the 
formal permission. You know by the terms of 
her father’s will she was to have all her wishes 
with regard to the property taken into considera- 
tion after she reached the age of twenty-one, but 
was still to be under the semi-guidance of the 
trustees till she reached her twenty-third birth- 
day.” 

“ I am only one of the trustees,” said Shelf. 
“You must arrange to bring my co-trustee up to 
meet me, and then I will talk the matter over 
with him.” 

“ I have called on that reverend gentleman be- 
fore I came to you,” said Fairfax, “and he quite 
meets with mine and Amy’s views. He will come 
up to town and see you himself in the morning 
at the City office. But in the mean time he sends 
his permission in this letter.” 

Fairfax selected a paper from his pocket-book 
and handed it to Mr. Shelf. “ I suppose you re- 
cognize the signature,” he said. 

Shelf started^ the paper rustling between his 


In the Matter of a Trust. 187 

large white fingers. He had a sentence on the 
end of his tongue, but with an effort he swallowed 
it. Then, with a frown and a quick catching of 
the breath, he turned to the letter and read it 
through. As it chanced, Fairfax had seen that 
momentary look of disquiet, and being a young 
man of some penetration, he argued down to the 
reason of it. “ Why,” he asked himself, “ should 
the old hypocrite be upset when I ‘ supposed he 
recognized his co-trustee’s handwriting?’ I’m 
bothered if I can see any definite reason, but 
there must be something pretty fishy somewhere. 
Theodore Shelf is not the man to let slip that 
kind of nervousness without some very excellent 
cause. I’m beginningto think that those of Amy’s 
interests which are in his hands will be none the 
worse for being a little looked after.” 

Mr. Theodore Shelf glanced up from the letter. 
‘‘ Of course you understand,” he said, ‘‘ that I 
cannot act upon an informal communication like 
this ? My co-trustee is a most excellent Christian, 
but, I regret to say, a bad man of business.” 

“ Pernicious, to say the least of him. He 
seems to have the flimsiest notion of the use of 
paper and signatures. Still, he mean§ entirely 
well, and that is why I do not want to worry him 
unduly. So, with permission, Mr. Shelf, and to 
take the burden of details off your shoulders as 
well as off his, I will instruct my own solicitor to 


i88 


Honor of Thieves. 


see to all the preliminaries as to which stock will 
bear selling out of best.” 

“You take it for granted,” said the shipowner 
sourly, “that I shall not put my veto on this 
scheme forspending my ward’s money.” 

“ Why should you ? You have given your con. 
sent to the marriage, and whatever may be 
your personal feelings towards me, at any rate, 
you like her. She wishes to marry me, and intends 
to do that anyway ; she wishes for this estate, 
and I do not see that you have any reasonable 
grounds for refusing to gratify her wish ; besides, 
as an investment, the thing is as good as a first 
mortgage or Three per cent. Corporation Stock.” 

“There are many grave objections to this 
course,” said Shelf. 

“Then, perhaps,” said Fairfax, “ you will tell 
me what they are ? ” 

“ I do not see that I am called upon to do any- 
thing of the kind.” 

“ There we differ. Moreover, Mr. Shelf, you 
force me to a very unpleasant conclusion.” 

“ And what, sir, might that be ? ” 

“ Well, this,” said Fairfax, with a significant 
stare: “You’ve got that money so — shall we 
say, securely — locked up, that it isn’t readily 
available for this new investment.” 

“You are talking like a child,” said Mr. Shelf, 


In the Matter of a Trust. 189 

I am talking like a plain business man," Fair- 
fax retorted, “ who intends to take reasonable 
care of his future wife’s property. I think that 
will explain my views ; and, as nothing more 
need be said on that matter, I will leave you. 
The other trustee will call upon you at midday 
to-morrow, and I shall make it my duty to ac- 
company him. So, for the present, sir, au re- 
voir!' 

Fairfax left the room, and Mr. Theodore Shelf 
layback in a swivel writing chair. Mechanically 
his fingers stretched out and dallied with a book 
which lay on the table. It was a Bradshaw. 
Once, indeed, he opened it, and turned up the 
pages of the express service between London and 
Southampton ; and, for a full half-hour held it 
with his finger as a page-marker ; but at the end 
of that time he flung the book savagely across 
the room, and stood up with clenched fists and 
the veins standing out of his forehead. 

“ Amy may thank Fairfax for saving her prop- 
erty," he muttered, ‘‘and a thousand people will 
curse him for doing it. I believe I’m a fool not 
to bolt now with what I’ve got, because nothing 
short of a miracle can bring me up again. Still, 
there’s the money subscribed by those poor 
wretches for this new company yet in hand, 
and that will stave off the immediate present. 
There’s just a chance that Onslow’s coup may be 


190 


Honor of Thieves. 


realized on in time, and, if that comes off, I’m all 
right again. And if it doesn’t, there’s the estan- 
9ia on the Rio Paraguay always ready. Yes, 
George, old chap, that it is. Snug and warm, be- 
yond worries, safe from extradition. I’ll risk it.” 

The wire-haired terrier was rubbing against his 
leg. He lifted the dog on to the cushion of an 
easy chair, and went to his safe. He took from 
that a bundle of papers, and spread them on his 
writing-table. 

They were the trust deeds and other papers 
connected with Miss Amy Rivers’ property. 
Some of them were documents distinctly worth 
locking up, because if the Public Prosecutor 
could have run his eye through the collection for 
one short five minutes, he would infallibly have 
procured for the saintly Mr. Theodore Shelf 
seven complete years of penal servitude. 

It is an unpleasant thing to level such a hint 
against so good a man ; but a fact or so will show 
solid reason for it. During the two preceding 
years — partly through depression in trade, partly 
through his wife’s broadcast extravagance — Theo- 
dore Shelf had found himself in desperate straits 
for money. He had raised funds this way and 
that by all legitimate means ; had plunged, but 
with evil fortune ; and finally had been reduced 
to making his daily income by less reputable 
means. For long he had laid covetous eyes on 


In the Matter of a Trust. 191 

the fortune of his late partner, Marmaduke 
Rivers, which was held in trust for the daughter 
by himself and a canon of Winchester ; and at 
last, in a moment of desperation, he determined 
to have the use of it. The co-trustee was a man 
who had taken a double-first at Oxford, and ap- 
parently spent all his life’s energies over the pro- 
cess. He had settled down into an amiable 
country parson, who bred prize-bantams, and 
wrote books on Armenian folk-lore. He was ex- 
tremely upright, vastly unsuspicious, and on mat- 
ters of business possessed an ignorance of unusual 
profundity. He respected Theodore Shelf, and 
disliked him with an equal intenseness. 

When Shelf made up his mind to tamper with 
the Rivers property, he did not go through the 
formality of asking this good gentleman’s leave 
and permission. He simply forged himself a 
power of attorney, signed it with the excellent 
canon’s name and set to work. Being a man who 
never did anything by halves, he did not take 
two bites at the cherry. He annexed the whole 
of his ward’s property, lock, stock, and barrel, and 
paid in the usual interest to her bankers with 
entire regularity. Humanly speaking, there was 
not a chance of his being found out ; and when 
fortune smiled on him again he had every inten- 
tion of repaying to the uttermost farthing what 
he had taken. As has been said, he liked Amy 


192 


Honor of Thieves. 


Rivers extremely, and, if he had not had his 
worthy self to consider, he would have been the 
last person in the world to do her an injury. 

And now this pestilent fellow Fairfax must need 
step in, bristling with suspicion, and evidently 
intending to have money or an inquiry. Of 
course, the latter was a thing which Mr. Shelf 
could not stand for one minute. At the first 
glance it would be shown that the trust property 
did not exist in its former state, and that the 
interest had been paid into the bank out of Mr. 
Shelf s own pocket. And so there were only two 
things which could be done ; either bolt forthwith, 
or pay the plundered trust out of some other 
fund, and hope that the Providence which guards 
knaves would pull things straight again. Mr. 
Shelf had chosen to take the latter course, and it 
was the money subscribed by the wretched share- 
holders of the Brothers Steamship Company 
which was alienated by him to make good the 
property of Miss. Amy Rivers. 

It required not many strokes of the pen to do 
this ; but, after restitution had been made, Mr. 
Theodore Shelf commenced coquetting with a 
more delicate piece of business. He desired to 
hide his tracks. It was his wish that, even if the 
worst came, and he had to fly the country as 
a detected swindler, no one should know that he 
had tampered with his own ward’s trust money. 


In the Matter of a Trust. 


193 


It seems almost laughable that the man should 
have put himself to this piece of pains. In the 
vast sweep of his other ponderous frauds, this 
very natural one might well pass without special 
obloquy from the great shorn public. But it was 
not for the general ruck of his victims that Shelf 
was working then. He had sacrificed a thousand 
(under compulsion) to repay one ; and, having 
made repayment, he wanted to cancel the odium 
of robbery. Next to himself and his dog, he 
probably loved Amy Rivers better than anything 
in all the world ; and, if the worst came, and he 
had to go, it would be pleasanter for him to think 
that she, at least, would have nothing but kind 
memories of him. She would know quite well 
that he might have included her fortune in his 
other robberies, because Fairfax would tell her 
that, if she did not guess it for herself ; and she 
would feel a kindness towards him for his forbear- 
ance. 

Of course, he would be getting this genial senti- 
ment under false pretenses, but that was a trifle 
which counted as nothing to Mr. Theodore Shelf. 
Your true hypocrite deludes no one more per- 
fectly and artistically than himself when he sets 
squarely about it. 

The time was long past midnight when he had 
finished tampering with the last of the papers on 
his writing-table ; and, as he passed the blotting- 


194 


Honor of Thieves. 


paper over his final forgery, he heard the clash 
of the front door in the hall below. Quickly 
bunching the papers together, he put them into 
the safe, locked it, threw himself into an easy 
chair, and picked up a quarto volume of his own 
published sermons. He was serenely reading 
these when his wife sailed majestically into the 
room, with Amy Rivers at her side. 

The girl stepped forward, took both of his 
hands in hers, and shook them warmly. “All 
congratulations,” she said. “ Fve only just heard. 
May I call you ^ Sir Theodore ’ in advance ? ” 

Shelf let the book slide to the floor, and sat up 
staring first at one and then the other. “I am 
much obliged to you, Amy dear,” he said at last ; 
“ but, upon my word, I don’t know what you 
mean.” 

“ It’s out ! ” she said. “ Everybody was talking 
about it to-night. You’ll be gazetted in the next 
Birthday List. And not a trumpery knighthood, 
either. You’re to be a full-blown baronet — no 
less.” 

Theodore Shelf lay back in his chair with a 
very queer expression on his face. He put his 
white fingers together under his chin, and stared 
curiously at his wife. “Your doing, I suppose, 
Laura?” 

“You may thank me for it entirely,” she replied 
with a smiling bow. “ I arranged for it here with 


In the Matter of a Trust. 


195 


the Minister ; and at the two places where we 
looked in at afterwards, I told the news to three 
of my dearest friends in the very strictest of con- 
fidence. Consequently, it is all over London to- 
night, and will be in all the papers in England to- 
morrow. Would you like to congratulate me?” 

“ I’ll wait,” said the shipowner, “ till I see you 
Lady Shelf. The title is not formally given over 
for a fortnight, and between now and then so 
much may happen. Man is but a frail creature.” 

Oh, for goodness’ sake,” said Mrs. Shelf, dis- 
gustedly, ‘‘ don’t cant now. When you are Sir 
Theodore I can’t have you disgracing me by 
preaching and holding forth to those low people 
you used to know. You must cut all that con- 
nection. Good heavens, Theodore, you can^t like 
it I And there’s really no more to be got out of 
that sort of thing. You’ve used those dreary, 
goody-goody folks, and made your fortune out of 
them, and let that suffice. Now, if you want to 
get on further, you’ve got to pick up with an- 
other set. Don’t you understand ? ” 

For reply Theodore Shelf burst into a sudden 
wild cackle of laughter. 

His wife drew back a step, half-scared. She 
had scarcely ever heard the man laugh once in all 
her life with him ; never like that ; and she did 
not know what to make of it. But at last he 
stopped and spoke. “You’re a clever woman, 


196 Honor of Thieves. 

Laura, and a handsome one. Tve never seen 
you look so fine as you do to-night. But you 
are a bit too rapid in some of your movements. 
You’re counting at present that, beyond a doubt, 
the servants will be calling you ‘ miladi ’ within a 
fortnight, and I suppose you’ll go out to-morrow 
and get a new card-plate engraved. Well, my 
dear, if I were you. I’d wait. A fortnight is 
fourteen days, and in every minute of that time 
something may happen to bring you an appalling 
disappointment. For instance, I may die. Take 
it that the Almighty does make me die, and 
where then comes in the use for your new card- 
plate ? There is precedent for creating a bar- 
oness, I grant you ; but I don’t think they are 
likely to manufacture another precedent by mak- 
ing you Lady Shelf in your own right if I am 
not at hand to share the dignity.” 

A servant came in and announced that Fairfax 
was in the hall below. Amy Rivers said “ Good- 
night ” hurriedly, and slipped out of the room. 
Mrs. Shelf took up her stand in front of the fire- 
place, flushed with triumph and wrath, and look- 
ing her superbest. “ You are talking the merest 
nonsense, Theodore,” she said, “ and before that 
girl, too ! Thank goodness, she is practically one 
of the family, and will not gossip. Die, indeed ! 
You die ! what an absurdity ! One would think, 
to hear you, that the world was coming to an end 


In the Matter of a Trust. 197 

before the Birthday List is out. Of course you 
will have the baronetcy. There can’t be a doubt 
about it now, thanks to me.” 

“ What do you want me to say?” Shelf asked. 

‘‘ Well, to begin with, in common decency you 
might thank me. If it had not been for my diplo- 
macy in this house to-night, you would only have 
had a beggarly knighthood offered, if as much as 
that. You have the chance of making a sensa- 
tion now.” 

Shelf stood slowly up, and strode up to the 
hearth-rug and faced her, with his head thrust 
forward and his arms folded across his breast. 

Yes,” he said slowly, “ I have a chance of mak- 
ing a sensation — one of the biggest of the century ; 
and mostly owing to your efforts. The Lord 
grant that the chance slips away from me ! You 
are very beautiful and very clever. But I be- 
lieve, Laura, that you are the devil, sent expressly 
on earth to tempt. You’d better go to bed now, 
and leave me. This is one of the times when I 
am tempted to kill you.” 


Honor of Thieves. 


198 


CHAPTER XVIIl. 

THE plume-hunters’ DINNER-PARTY. 

The one-eyed man, Mr. Billy Nutt, and his 
friend and partner, whose name was apparently 
Hank without further attachment, made a liveli- 
hood by transgressing the laws of the United 
States and supplying a strong demand. Ladies 
of Society wished for egret plumes and other 
feathers for external adornment, and the Seminole 
of the Everglades desired corn whisky for his 
stomach’s sake; and whilst Game Regulations 
forbade collection of the first, Indians’ Protection 
Acts vetoed all distribution of the second. And 
for the transgressor there were distinct and heavy 
penalties. 

But, to begin with. States law does not carry 
very far in Florida, which is the home of outlaws ; 
and, in the second place, Mr. Nutt and friend 
were both “ wanted ” on several counts already, 
amongst which unjustifiable homicide ranked 
high ; so that they were men entirely reckless, 
and inclined to look upon poaching, and illicit 
whisky peddling to the aboriginal, as the mildest 


The Plume-Hunters^ Dinner-Party. 199 

of mild peccadilloes. Moreover, as in furtherance 
of their business they were extremely well armed, 
and apt to shoot first and reflect afterwards when 
annoyed, they were not persons to be argued 
with by any of the more gentle methods. 

The three men on the steamer were in no way 
prepared to receive these dubious visitors — were, 
in fact, completely oblivious of their approach, 
being still chained in the deadest slumber. The 
sun had drooped below the tree-tops, and already 
the night noises of the forest were beginning — 
the rattle of crickets and toads in the trees, the 
grunting of the bullfrogs in the swamp, the dry 
rustle of the jar-flies, and the warm hum of the 
never-sleeping mosquito. In the darker tree aisles 
there commenced the fireflies’ brief snappings of 
light ; and in the black, shadowed water of the 
bayous were other phosphorescent glows, like 
these, only coming from the eyes of some prowl- 
ing alligator. 

The sloop ran down her jib topsail, and as the 
iron hanks screamed along the stay a negro trotted 
nimbly out along the flat bowsprit top to secure 
the sail in its gaskets. The wind was dropping 
with the sun, and because the current raced man- 
fully down the bight where the stranded steamer 
was lying, the sloop made but a fathom or so to 
the good by every board across the river. The 
one-eyed man danced a barefoot tattoo of fury on 


200 


Honor of Thieves. 


the floorboards of the cockpit at this slowness ; 
and his loose-limbed partner, who still sprawled 
on the cabin-roof, chuckled with easy amusement. 
But the breeze held long enough for their pur- 
pose. They ran up above the steamer, and the 
steam ground their planking against the rust- 
streaked iron. A pair of davit-falls hung down, 
with the blocks weed-covered in the water ; and 
overhauling one of these, they made it fast round 
the bitts. Then, swarming up the other fall, the 
whole five of them gained the bridge-deck above. 

Instinctively, when once their feet were on the 
warm gray planks, each man, black and white, 
handled his weapon ready to fight or argue as 
might be demanded of him ; but no one appeared 
to seek explanation of their presence ; and from 
staring about them, they took to staring at one 
another rather foolishly. If one has been expect- 
ing a brisk game of murder, and one meets with 
empty silence, it rather spoils the sequence of 
ideas. 

“Come to think of it,” said Hank in an op- 
pressive whisper, “ if there’d been an anchor 
watch, they’d have hailed us before we got this 
far. I bet the Old Man’s asleep in the chart- 
house. ’Twouldn’t be a bad idea to bottle him.” 

He pattered across the deck, right hand inside 
his shirt bosom, pistol gripped in that, and peered 
in through the open door. The place was ten- 


The Plume-Hunters’ Dinner Party. 201 

anted by no living thing larger than flies and 
cockroaches. He drew back half scared by the eeri- 
ness of it, and then beckoning his mates, headed 
them down the companion ladder, treading like a 
stage conspirator. At the foot, two doors opened, 
one into the alley-way which was empty, the other 
into the main cabin, on the floor of which Kettle 
had been deposited by the donkeyman. But in 
the culminating spasm of his cramp, the little 
captain had rolled away out of sight under the 
table, and so to all appearance this place was 
deserted also. 

The men peered about them, and ran aft, pok- 
ing their noses in pantry and galley and engine- 
room. Coming back through the alley-way they 
searched the two mates’ rooms, and found them 
empty ; and going out on the iron fore deck, 
found the forecastle deserted also. Then they 
gathered round that gaping rent where the fore- 
hatch had been, in curious wonder, examining 
the crumpled plates which were yellow with new 
rust, and pointing out to one another the twisted 
stanchions and splintered debris below. And 
at this they were engaged when the sun took its 
final dive beneath the waters of the Mexican gulf 
to westward, and the tropical darkness snapped 
down upon them like the shutting of a box. 

Hank,” said the one-eyed man, “ this gets 
me. What in snakes have they been doin’ to this 


202 


Honor of Thieves. 


blame’ steamboat, and for why have they gug- 
gug-gone off and left her ? ” 

“ Euclid’s out of my line,” said Hank, oracu- 
larly. 

‘‘ Oh you blank putty-head,” retorted his friend, 
th-th-ink ! ” 

“You tire me. If they aren’t here they aren’t. 
P’r’aps they’ve gone off and toted the boodle to 
a cache. P’r’aps it’s left right here aboard, and 
if it is I guess we shall find it when we want it. 
What I’m on for now’s grub. I hain’t had a 
Christian meal for three months, thanks to this 
new sheriff bustling after us, and I’m about sick 
of mullet and sweet potatoes. But, please our 
luck, we’ll raid their store-rooms here and fix up 
a regular hotel supper for to-night. That’s me. 
Now, come along, fellers.” 

The negroes chuckled and crowed, capering 
like children, and went off with the tall man to- 
wards the galley, and Nutt, after an ineffectual 
attempt to speak (which threw him into a parox- 
ysm of fury), presently followed them. 

The feast was sui generis. They found grease, 
baking powder, and flour, and made doughnuts ; 
they hotted three tins of Julienne soup; they 
baked a great mass of salt pork on a bedding of 
white beans ; they made a stew of preserved 
potatoes, Australian mutton, and pdt^ de foie 
gras ; and, as a chef d' oeuvre^ one of the negroes 


The Plume-Hunters' Dinner-Party. 203 

turned out some crisp three-corned tartlets stuffed 
with strawberry jam. Then Hank, with a lamp 
in one hand, a cylinder of plates in the other, and 
a whole armory of knives and forks bristling 
from his pockets, pattered off to the main cabin 
to lay the table. 

At the doorway he stopped, gaping, and because 
the instinct of the much-hunted made his right 
hand slip round to a certain back pocket, the 
plates went to the ground with a crash. In the 
swivel-chair at the head of the table was huddled 
a man, a small man, with a cold cigar bitten tight 
between his teeth, a man so grimy with coal-dust 
that Hank couldn’t have sworn whether the short, 
peaked beard which rested on his chest was black 
or red or prussian-blue. 

“ Oh, don’t you trouble to be polite,” said the 
man in the chair. “ I’m mighty glad to see any 
one who can talk, or use a pair of hands.” Here 
he lifted his nose and sniffed the air like a hound. 

Is that supper you’re cooking ? ” 

“ I reckon.” 

“ Found anything to wash it down with?” 

“ There was a dozen bottles of beer, but we 
wanted those between whiles, and I guess they’re 
drunk.” 

“ There should have been more, but I suppose 
my lousy steward has necked them. However, 
this is a big night, and this is the first time I’ve 


204 Honor of Thieves. 

seen you and your mates, and so I guess cham- 
pagne’ll be good enough for us. There’s a case 
in that end room ready a-purpose for this sort of 
celebration day. Perhaps you’ll fetch it out ; I’m 
weak still.” 

Hank obeyed, wonderingly, and laid the table, 
and brought on the viands, in which he was as- 
sisted by Nutt and the blacks. 

Then Captain Kettle spoke again. 

“ Oh, look here, friends. I’m not going to sit at 
table with niggers. I take it this isn’t a blessed 
missionary meeting.” 

It seemed as though there would be a row. One 
of the blacks stated his intention of taking no 
“ sass from that po’ white trash,” and another 
openly drew a razor, and made suggestive mo- 
tions with it through the air. 

“ Of course,” said Kettle, if you two gentle- 
men have chucked your color, and care to feed with 
those ornaments, you can do it. Only I’m a 
white man, and have my pride.” 

“ That’s right,” said Nutt. Picnicking on the 
sloop’s different. But this is a regular hotel sup- 
per, with napkins and a tablecloth, and I guess 
anything colored ’ud spoil the tone. Say s-s-s-son- 
nies, you mosey.” 

“ I done cooked most this yer grub,” whined 
he of the razor, “an’ I’se gwinet’eat my belly- 
load.” 


The Plume-Hunters' Dinner-Party. 205 

“Well, collar what you want to eat till you 
bu-s-s-s.” 

“ Yes, but whar’ll we go ? " 

Nutt looked at Captain Kettle. The little man 
in the swivel-chair gave his African guests full 
leave to go to a place considerably hotter than the 
engine-hold ; suggesting the mess-room as an af- 
terthought and alternative ; whither they betook 
themselves, grumbling. And then the three 
whites commenced their meal. 

Kettle unwired a champagne bottle with a fork, 
and poured out three long tumblers of dancing 
froth. “ Wine !" said Hank. “ Oh, my Jemima ! ” 

“ Geg-geg-got any ice? ” queried the one-eyed 
man. 

“ Ice is off,” replied the captain. “ Things have 
been that hot this trip it gave up and melted.” 

“You seem to got your manners on ice, Mr. 
Billy Nutt,” said his friend. “Now I see an ele- 
gant hotel meal in front of me, and Vm going to 
make a pig of myself, and be jolly well thankful. 
I hain’t any use for your high-toned sort of can- 
oosering. See here, stuff your silly mouth, and 
quit grumbling right now. D’ye hear me ? ” 

His guests ate, and Kettle made small talk for 
them, at the same time playing a good knife and 
fork himself. The food seemed to straighten his 
back and knock the limpness out of him ; but 
Mr. Nutt and his friend were lapping their cham- 


2o6 


Honor of Thieves. 


pagne too industriously to see any significance in 
the change. They were enjoying themselves with 
a gusto to which the ordinary gourmand is a 
stranger. Probably there is nothing on earth so 
nauseating as a severe course of the Floridan 
sweet potato. And, consequently, there is no 
diet so calculated to make one appreciate a more 
generous menu. 

The meal crept steadily through its courses, 
and the empty bottles grew on the cabin floor. 
No one got drunk. Captain Kettle’s own liba- 
tions were sparing, and the others had each a 
high co-efficient of absorption ; still all were exhil- 
arated, and ripe for mischief or merriment as 
might befall. 

“ Say, cap,” said the long man, as he dallied 
with his last strawberry tartlet, “ isn’t it so that 
you’ve got this fine steamboat of yours ballasted 
with sovereigns?” 

“ It’s so,” said Kettle, “ or something very like 
that.” 

“ Your own ? ” 

“ Oh Lord, no. Just freight consigned to New 
Orleans, and brought here by that blow-up I was 
telling you about. I suppose that you gentle- 
men’ll have no objection to bearing a hand aboard 
o’ me now you are here ? I’m a bit short-manned, 
and it ’ud be a pity to let freight like that rust 
for want of fingering.” 


The Plume-Hunters’ Dinner-Party. 207 

Hank grinned at his vis-h-vis^ and then turned 
to the little skipper in the swivel-chair. “ No,” 
he said, “ I don’t see there’s anything wrong with 
that. I’m afraid, though, if we chipped in we 
couldn’t sign on so far as Noo Orleans.” 

“ New Orleans be sugared,” cried Captain Ket- 
tle. “ Haven’t I spoke plain enough already ? 
Don’t you understand all this racket’s a blessed 
swindle? The steamer’s going to have the name- 
plate on her engines altered, and the label on her 
stern changed, and a different pattern painted on 
her smoke-stacks, and a coat of gray clapped on 
her outside. And then, when she’s so bedevilled 
her own builder wouldn’t know her, we’ll run her 
round to some South American port where the 
least number of questions will be asked, and sell 
her for what she’ll fetch. But only the steamer, 
mark you. I reckon she’s carried the freight far 
enough. That’ll be struck out of her here.” 

“You bet,” said Nutt, rubbing his hands. 
“ We’ll corral the dollars for you right here till 
you come back. You shall have our niggers to 
s-s-stoke for you, if you can get ’em, and can man- 
age ’em. But they’re fair toughs. Perhaps you’d 
w-w-weaken when you came to know ’em a bit.” 

“ I’d handle,” retorted Kettle, “ a crew of old 
Nick’s firemen, raw out of hell, if I was put to it. 
Don’t you make any error. I’ve kept my end up 
with the worst crowds a man ever put to sea with. 


2o8 


Honor of Thieves. 


By James ! ” he went on, with a blow at the table, 
“by James! I’d handle you, Mr. Nutt, if you 
were signed aboard o’ me, till you couldn’t call 
your soul your own.” 

“You’d w-w-which?” snarled Nutt, rising in 
his chair. 

“Sit, you swine,” said his partner, “and be 
quiet. You tire me. What are you riling the 
gentleman for, just when we were getting so nice 
and friendly with him?” 

“You — lemme alone.” 

“ I’ll smash your ugly little face in if you don’t 
keep it shut.” 

The one-eyed man tried to retort, but his in- 
firmity gagged him, and a spasm of wild fury bit 
into all his muscles. 

His friend wagged a derisive finger. “There’s 
an image for you, cap. Look at the creature, 
froze like a Chinese potdog ; look at him and 
don’t laugh. And, say, just reach me another 
bottle of wine, it will be so good. Thanks, siree. 
I wouldn’t care if I died drinking this. Here’s 
our blessed health. Good old cap ; you stick to 
me and I’ll stick to you; and if Mr. Billy Nutt 
can’t swallow his tantrums and join us two gentle- 
men like another gentleman, by Jemima, we’ll 
give him what he’s got for his share, and set him 
adrift in an empty bottle. You hear me, Billy 
Nutt ? ” 


The Plume-Hunters’ Dinner-Party. 209 

“You spup-luttering fool. You boosey, 
drunken puttyhead.” 

“ Fm not drunk,” retorted Hank, but Fm 
merry. Have a sup yourself, and then perhaps 
you’ll be better company.” With which advice 
a liberal heeltap of champagne splashed in Nutt’s 
face. 

The man sprang to his feet, glowering like a 
fiend. What followed was completed before a 
watch could tick twice. For once the gift of 
speech did not desert him. The fatal words 
bounced glibly off his tongue, and Hank’s venge- 
ful hands shot out. In an instant the pair were 
grappling together, and a gouging thumb did 
its horrid work. Then, tearing himself away, 
eyeless, the lesser man ran screaming blindly into 
the sideboard at the other side of the cabin. His 
friend pitched stiffly forward, and fell face down- 
ward amongst the dishes, lying there without so 
much as a quiver. He was stone dead. With 
the black-handled knife that had carved their 
baking of pork, Nutt had stabbed him from the 
shoulder down through his heart. 

“ That saves my cartridges,” said Captain 
Kettle, and took his cocked revolver from where 
it lodged between his knee and the under side of 
the table. 

He passed swiftly out through the pantry door, 
and was just in time for what he expected. The 

14 


210 


Honor of Thieves. 


negroes, alarmed by Nutt’s shrieks, were rushing 
from the mess-room to see what had gone wrong. 
He charged and drove them furiously back. 
They turned and ran before him, tumbling over 
one another in their scared haste ; and then he 
took up his place in the doorway, threatening 
them with steady weapon and crisp, decisive 
tongue. 

“ Quick,” he cried, quick, you scum ; unload 
yourselves. Pitch overboard your knives and 
razors and whatever you’ve got, or, by James, if 
a man of you stops to think. I’ll blow his brains 
through the porthole.” 

The negroes obeyed him in sullen, frightened 
silence, and stood with elbows up facing him as 
he covered them. Kettle watched the three with 
steady eye ; but his ear was cocked down the 
passage, drinking in every rustle which came from 
the place he had left. 

The shriekings of the eyeless man in the cabin 
had given way to groans ; and then there came 
the sound of bumps and scratchings, as though he 
were blundering madly about to find something ; 
and then the pattering of naked feet as he groped 
his way up the lead-covered steps of the com- 
panion. So intently did they follow this one 
man’s movements that it seemed to them as 
though all other sounds were hushed, even to the 
never-ceasing hum of the insects. 


The Plume-Hunters’ Dinner-Party. 21 1 

With awe the listeners held their breath for 
what might come next. But they had not long 
to wait. From the deck above there burst out a 
wild tirade of hate and blasphemy, which ended 
in a shrieking cry of despair and a plunging 
splash ; and once more the distant noises of the 
night closed in upon them. 

“ Nutt,” said Captain Kettle, “ is dead, and Pm 
almost sorry. I believe I could have liked that 
man. He’d grit in him, had Nutt, and he 
wouldn’t take cheek from a living soul. Your 
other boss also is dead ; killed by Nutt. So 
you’re my niggers now, and will be till I’ve done 
with you.” 

Whord you mean ? ” one of the captives 
asked, with a whine. 

“ You’ll have to do what niggers were sent in 
the world for, and that’s work. Your fool of a 
government says you aren’t slaves now, and so I 
won’t treat you as such. That is, you’ll be paid. 
But I shall get my money’s worth out of you 
first.” 

“ I guess this is a free country. You can’t 
make us work unless we choose.” 

“ I’ve had that said before to me,” Kettle re- 
joined grimly, “ by better men than you — white 
men — and they changed their minds when I got 
to handling them. You’ll see later. But for now 
you’ve got to stay here ; and if you get out, and 


212 


Honor of Thieves. 


I find you rambling, you’ll be shot like crows. 
You quite understand ? ” 

He shut the mess-room door and locked it, and 
once more went to the main cabin. The tall man 
lay exactly as he had fallen, and from underneath 
his neck five tricklets of red spread out across 
the slopped table-cloth, like the fingers of a mon- 
strous hand. The lamplight fell also upon other 
smearings of red, where Nutt had groped his way 
round the panelling. Kettle leaned up against 
the rail of the sideboard and wiped his face with 
a napkin. Perspiration had loosened the coal 
dust, and the skin came out white, with only here 
and there a smudge of the old grime. 

“ Supposing,” he said to himself, “ we were 
nabbed now, and there was a trial, who’s to prove 
I didn’t put the pork-knife in that man? Oh 
dear Lord, what a hat it’s getting.” 


Subjects for Matrimony. 


213 


CHAPTER XIX. 

SUBJECTS FOR MATRIMONY. 

Miss Kildare gave a shrug to her shoulders. 
‘^Yes,” she said, ‘‘I suppose it is a different me. 
I’ve got my hair done up, and longer skirts, and 
all the rest of it. In fact, like the young person 
in the book. I’ve growed. But I don’t see that 
you have altered much, except that you’re just a 
tiny-iny bit crows-footy about the eyes. You 
haven’t even grown a mustache, as I always 
wanted you to do.” 

“ Didn’t know I was going to meet you, or I 
might have spared my razor.” 

I wish you’d known, then. But fancy your 
turning up here of all places. It is an extremely 
small world — there’s no doubt about that. Well, 
Pat, as we’ve each said at least twenty times 
apiece how surprised we are to see one another, 
suppose you come out on to the piazza and tell 
me things. We shall have a crowd round us if 
we stay here in the hall much longer.” 

“ My dear child, what things? ” asked Onslow, 
laughing. “ I’ve been chattering history to you 
ever since I turned up at the hotel.” 


214 


Honor of Thieves. 


The girl seated herself in a cool, cane rocker, 
and picked up a palm-leaf fan. “ Hundreds of 
things. To begin with, what are people wearing 
in Town just now?” 

“ In London ? Oh, frock coats, rather longer 
than ever, and narrow-stripe trousers, and toppers 
with just twopenny worth of curl in them — not 
more.” 

“ But I mean the women ? ” 

“ Fifteen yards to the skirt, and they’re begin- 
ning to drape them. The fashionable deformity 
at present is elephantiasis of the biceps — I mean 
gigot sleeves. They start at the ears, and go 
down to the elbows — some of them further.” 

“ Ah,” said Miss Kildare, thoughtfully, “ I used 
to have good arms. Not quite as nice as Mabel’s, 
though. But latterly I haven’t been in places 
where evening dress was used. By the way, do 
you dance still ? ” 

‘‘ Keen on it as ever.” 

“ What’s the waltz like now ? ” 

“ Capering on hot bricks. Heaps more exer- 
cise to the furlong. People kill themselves at it 
much sooner.” 

“ Reverse ? ” 

“ In the north of England, where they all dance 
well, they’re like the Americans, and go each way 
alternately. In London and the south, where 
most of them waltz vilely, reversing is Aceldama.” 


Subjects for Matrimony. 215 

“ I suppose/’ said Miss Kildare, with her eyes 
meditatively following a bronze-green humming- 
bird which was darting about a trumpet-vine on 
the piazza rail, “ I suppose we shall have a hop 
here to-night. I shan’t reverse ; and when my 
partners ask why, I shall tell them it's the latest 
thing. One always likes to be as English as pos- 
sible. Tell me something else that it’s toney to 
do.” 

“ Read nasty novels, written by women you 
wouldn’t sit in the same room with, and then gush 
about them afterwards. That’s a very fashion- 
able amusement with the up-to-date young 
women.” 

“ Ugh, Pat, don’t be a pig. Besides, that 
wouldn’t suit my style a bit.” 

But why want to change, Elsie ? Don’t you 
appreciate yourself as you are at present? I’m 
sure other people would.” 

“ That’s blarney.” 

No,” said Onslow, judicially, I think it’s 
ordinary fact.” 

“ Is it really, though ? I am glad. You know. 
I’ve thought lately my present stock-in-trade 
wouldn’t pass muster outside Florida. I can 
handle a boat in any weather, and ride anything 
that’s called a horse, and can dance decently in 
American fashion ; but I can’t do anything else, 
except perhaps talk, if that counts.” 


2i6 


Honor of Thieves. 


Onslow laughed. “You are refreshing,” he 
said. “ But why this inventory of stock ? ” 

“ Because, Pat, Pm wondering how I shall get 
on in England. I’m going out there this fall. 
I’m two and twenty, you know, and I can do as 
I like, and living in the back blocks is beginning 
to pall.” 

“ Going there by yourself ? ” 

“ No, I’m not quite so independent as that. 
The Van Liews, the people I’m staying with here, 
spend the winter in London, and they’re going 
to take me with them.” 

“And afterwards, you come back again to the 
States ? ” 

Miss Kildare again watched the bronze-green 
humming-bird. “ Qiiien sabe ? ” she said. “ I 
may be induced to stay.” 

“ What ! You’re going to get married ? ” 

“Why not, if I have an invitation? Twenty- 
two’s getting on.” 

“ Ah,” said Onslow, and set to rocking his 
chair. 

“ Yes ? ” 

“ I didn’t say anything.” 

“You said ‘Ah,’ Patrick, and that meant you 
thought a lot besides.” 

“ Quite right, I did. It had never quite struck 
me till then that you were a completely grown- 
up young woman now, and might any day see a 


Subjects for Matrimony. 217 

man to go into permanent partnership with. It’s 
a bit of a jar — I mean, it comes oddly to one at 
first to think of you as married, Elsie.” 

“ Shoo-ssh ! Pat, get up and drive that hum- 
ming-bird away. He won’t go for me, greedy 
little beast ; and if he stays any longer I know 
he’ll over-eat himself. Well, you’d better brace 
yourself up for a blow, because married I mean 
to be some day. Who knows but what you’ll 
beat me in the race ? ” 

“I?” 

‘‘ Why not ? When Duvernay died, Mabel be- 
came a widow.” 

“ That,” said Onslow, “ is the usual sequence of 
events.” 

“ You know she never wanted to marry him.” 

“ So I was led to understand some five years 
back. Yet marry him she did nevertheless, and 
that after due publication of banns. T might re- 
mark, Elsie, that that humming-bird you were in- 
terested in is still gorging himself out of those 
red flowers just on the other side of you.” 

“ Some creatures never know when to stop. 
Now I do,” said Miss Kildare. “ That’s the bell 
for dinner. I must go and tidy myself.” 

Meanwhile in that same Floridan hotel a certain 
Mr. Kent-Williams, a young gentleman of Eng- 
land, who was throwing poker dice at the bar with 
two friends for ante-prandial cock-tails, was look- 


2i8 


Honor of Thieves. 


ing at the same subject from a different coign of 
view. He was a young gentleman who had not 
made a conspicuous success of himself at home, 
and had been deported to Florida with a view to 
extracting a fortune from orange growing. As on 
reaching the spot he found this was difficult of 
achievement, he wisely did not worry his brain with 
any vain attempts, but was content with living 
in inexpensive retirement under a palmetto-shuck 
for nineteen-twentieths of each quarter, and blos- 
soming out during the remaining days in riotous 
living at the Point Sebastian hotel on the allow- 
ance which reached him from home. And with 
him were two others who had been softly nurtured, 
and who were also taking their quarterly nip of 
semi-civilization. 

I tell you,” said Mr. Kent-Williams, “ she’s a 
clinking fine specimen, that Kildare girl, and, by 
Jove, I ought to be a judge if any one is round here. 
Look! three sevens, first shot: good. I’ll keep 
these, and see if I can rattle out another. She’ll 
go to England and marry a duke as sure as fits, 
don’t you know. I wonder if Onslow will hitch 
on to the other sister. Looks like it, his coming 
here after the Duvernay beast turned up his toes. 
I never could stand Duvernay ; not a ’Varsity 
man, don’t you know, and hadn’t been anywhere 
to school. Simply a bit of money, and thought 
he could swagger on that. By Jove! two bul- 


Subjects for Matrimony. 219 

lets. That makes me a Full House, and I’ll stand 
on it. Collar the box, Willie, dear boy, and beat 
me if you can.” 

“ No,” said Willie, scooping the dice into the 
leather box, and thoughtfully stirring them be- 
fore he emptied on to the pewter counter. I 
don’t think — ar — Duvernay was anybody. I 
did know him here, of course, because one 
couldn’t help it, but I — ar — don’t recollect meet- 
ing him at the club or anywhere before we — ar — 
came out. By ged ! look there ! Fours first 
shot. Of course, the Kildares are all right as far as 
family goes, but they’re poor as regards the — ar — 
almighty dollar. If it wasn’t for that, by ged ! I 
wouldn’t mind going in for the fair Elsie myself. 
Wobinson, old chappie, take the box and agitate. 
You won’t beat my four ladies.” 

“ I wish,” said Kent-Williams, meditatively, “ I 
knew what Onslow was going to do. Mabel 
Duvernay’s a charming woman, and she’s got at 
least j^SOO a year. I don’t want to make a fool of 
myself if Onslow’s still in the running. And, by 
Jove ! I know she’s as fond of him as ever. That 
beast Duvernay used to twit her with it when he 
was in an extra vile temper.” 

“ Go slow,” advised Robinson, ‘‘ and hang back 
for bets. Here, I can’t improve on two pairs, so 
you and I throw again. Here’s the box. By the 
way, why not ask Onslow yourself? You knew 


220 Honor of Thieves. 

him well enough at Cambridge, and you aren’t 
shy.” 

‘‘ I’m not shy, dear boy, and I used to know 
Patrick Onslow well before I came out. He’s a 
devilish genial fellow, so long as you rub him the 
right way, but I shouldn’t like to cross-question 
him too much about Mrs. Duvernay. You see, 
don’t you know, he was most infernally struck on 
the lady before she was married, and he’s one of 
those fellows with a long memory, who don’t 
forget. Now I, dear boy, have been in love with 
heaps of women in my time, and they with me ; 
but when they gave me the chuck, or I got tired 
of them, I didn’t break my blessed heart, or play 
the goat, or do anything of that kind. I simply 
went on to the next caravan, which is a devilish 
comfortable amusement. But old Pat isn’t built 
that way. He’s one of those fools who would 
get gone on a woman and keep her in mind for 
years and years afterwards. Mighty dreary sort 
of game to my way of thinking. By Jove ! four 
kings. If you beat those, dear boy, may I live on 
sweet potatoes and mullet for all the rest of my 
natural life.” 

“Oh, Lord,” said Robinson, “.^500 a year — 
twenty-five hundred dollars ! One could pig along 
with that very comfortably in lots of places. 
What unlucky brutes some of us are. Oh, curse 
it, just my form ; two pairs again. We won’t pro- 


Subjects for Matrimony. 221 

long the agony. My shout — what’ll you fellows 
have ? ” 

They drank their cocktails, and went into the 
vast, bare dining-hall, where a shining negro wait- 
er supplied each with a tumbler of iced tea and 
two dozen oval dishes of comestibles. 

“ Onslow seems thick enough with the Kildare 
girl,” Kent-Williams observed. “ But, of course, 
he knew her when she was a kid, and they’d have 
heaps to talk about. What do you think, 
Willie ? ” 

“ How should I know, dear chappie? I’m not 
one of those thought-reading fellows. But per- 
haps she’s — ar — telling him about her sister. 
Girls always try and run a fellow for their sisters 
if they can’t get the fellow — ar — for them- 
selves.” 

“ Here, waiter! ” shouted Robinson, “what did 
you bring sweet potatoes for? Nobody ordered 
them. Take the damned things away and bury 
them.” The waiter grinned and vanished with 
the dishes, and Robinson set to savagely tearing 
at a tough beefsteak with a silver-bladed knife. 
“ Money’s run out,” he grumbled, “and back we 
go to-morrow to live like wild beasts in a palmetto- 
shuck, on that accursed food and nothing else. 
I believe that foul, grinning nigger knew, and 
brought those sweet spuds here just to insult us. 
Fve a great mind to break his beastly neck.” 


222 


Honor of Thieves. 


“ What’s the use of getting hot over it this 
weather ? ” said Kent-Williams. If you did break 
the nigger’s neck it wouldn’t add to your income, 
and that’s the only occupation I know worth 
living for.” 

“ And, therefore, you want to marry Mrs. 
Duvernay ? ” 

“ Or any one else with a modicum of dollars. 
I’m not prejudiced. Believe me, dear boy, I 
could pour out a whole wealth of affection on 
sweet Mabel or sweet Kitty, or sweet anybody 
else who was able to support me in moderate com- 
fort. At present my talents are thrown away 
during nineteen-twentieths of the year, because 
Nature never intended me to shine as a noble 
savage. Consequently, dear boy. I’m ready to 
throw myself away on any one.” 

Oh, I like that,” said Robinson. “ You might 
have married a girl here last winter.” 

“ The traveling English person without the 
aitches ? Yes, dear boy, I did think about it. But 
I came to the conclusion that she was too old to 
reform, and, don’t you know, one really couldn’t 
stand living with an aitchless person eternally for 
any amount of income. Of course, it was a 
sacrifice, and the poor girl was very let down ; 
but I think she’ll get over it in time. They all 
do.” 

“ Probably she has done,” said Robinson, 


223 


Subjects for Matrimony. 

grimly. “ From what he said, her father was 
quite resigned to your loss before he left here.” 

“ My prospective father-in-law was sordid. He 
couldn't appreciate a gentleman. Now, Mabel’s 
papa is in a better land, and, by Jove ! that’s a 
great point in her favor. I never could stand 
paternal advice.” 

You seem to be making pretty sure of getting 
the lady.” 

“ I’m not at all sure, but I want to find out 
how the land lies. And, by Jove! clever thought ! 
I know how to do it. I’ll go to Onslow after 
dinner, tell him I’m going to call on Mrs. 
Duvernay to-morrow, and offer to take him down 
there in my dug-out. I shall soon see what his 
game is. If he’s after her still, he’ll look jealous, 
and trust me for seeing it; and if he isn’t, why 
it’s a walk-over.” 

“ All the same,” remarked his other friend, “ I 
don’t think I’d — ar — put very long odds on you, 
old chappie. There’s nothing certain in this life, 
and widows are apt — ar — to keep a fellow dan- 
gling till a fellow gets tired. Finished? Then 
let’s go to the bar and throw for liqueurs. Mine’s 
creme de menthey 


224 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER XX. 

AT POINT SEBASTIAN. 

Now the great rambling, wooden hotel in 
which Miss Elsie Kildare was staying under care 
of her friends, the Van Liews, though on the end 
of a telegraph-wire, and within easy day’s steam 
of a railroad, was not particularly far in crow’s- 
flight from that uncharted river where the Port 
Edes lay stranded on a sand-bar. The hotel, in 
fact, backed upon the Everglades, and faced the 
blue, crisping waters of the Mexican Gulf. At 
one side of it was a plantation of sisal hemp, and 
beyond that thickets of saw-grass, and beyond 
again cypress-trees and cabbage-palms sprouting 
from an undergrowth which was bound into an 
impenetrable cheveux de /rise with wait-a-bit thorn. 
At the other side were newly planted umbrella- 
trees, two decrepit orange-bushes without fruit, 
twenty luxuriant chumps of elephants’ ears, and 
then straggles of palmetto-scrub right down to the 
soft white banks of Gulf sand. Beyond was clear 
blue water, with a rickety wooden wharf strad- 
dling a mile out into it, like some uncouth, gray- 


At Point Sebastian. 225 

legged centipede. And beneath the water, 
dented rusty food-cans grew intimate with the 
coral polyp. 

In winter time, Point Sebastian was a resting- 
place for nabobs of the north, and a congregation 
spot for those delightful American women who 
leave a convenient husband at work elsewhere on 
the dollar-mill. But, in the warmer months, these 
worthy people did their pleasure-living at the 
sea beaches of the north, or the hotels of the 
Alleghanies ; and the rest-house at Point Sebas- 
tian locked and covered most of its glories. The 
Floridan who stays in Florida all summer does 
so usually because of a tightness in the ex- 
chequer ; and for the few of him who came to 
dissipate a small but hardly scraped-up hoard in 
a spell of semi-civilization, a tenth of the avail- 
able rooms made ample lodging place. 

Still there was a summer season of sorts at 
Point Sebastian, which was merry enough in its 
way. Most nights, on the parquet of the hall, a 
cheery score danced under the glare of electric 
lights to the lilt of Teuton fiddles ; and in the 
cool gloom of the piazzas outside, if straitened 
means did prevent the actual drafting of marriage 
contracts, even penury undisguised could enjoy 
the dallyings of the week’s flirtation. Mr. Kent- 
Williams and his tribe were entertaining fellows 
enough to meet for a limited time, and maidens, 


226 


Honor of Thieves. 


come into the hotel for an annual outing, basked 
in the odor of their pretty sayings, and frankly 
prepared themselves for nothing beyond tem- 
porary amusement. 

Patrick Onslow met at least five men there he 
knew, which shows the great advantage of being 
a University man ; because, since at Oxford and 
Cambridge they most successfully refrain from 
teaching anything that is of commercial use to 
any one except a parson or a doctor or a school- 
master, it naturally follows that many men from 
those seats of learning fail to make a living at 
home, and drift across the seas. 

He did not make the smallest secret about his 
advent. As the newspapers had told them 
already, he had been on the unlucky Port Edes 
when she came to grief, but had managed to get 
ashore by a marvelous streak of luck, and found 
himself at a spot where, less than a year ago, he 
had been wandering about on a shooting expedi- 
tion. Thence he had made his way in a dug-out, 
bought from a Seminole, to the hotel on Point 
Sebastian. Vda tout. There was nothing sur- 
prising about it. He had had several opportuni- 
ties for drowning before that, but none of them 
had ever come off. So he supposed that the 
ParccB marked him out to live. And — what 
would they have ? His shout. 

At that period Mr. Patrick Onslow was feeling 


At Point Sebastian. 


227 

extremely pleased with himself. He hated the 
work at which he had been engaged, as any man 
must hate being mixed with a swindle, be it great 
or small. And the end seemed near — the end, 
conjoined to full success. 

He had had a struggle for it, because once 
more Captain Kettle had felt inclined to fight 
for his own hand rather than do all things for 
mere employers, who only paid him a small salary. 
It was when Onslow woke from that dead sleep 
on the wheel grating of the upper bridge, and came 
down to learn of the tragedy of the plume-hunters 
which had taken place during his unconsciousness, 
that he got the first hint of this. The little cap- 
tain received him with cold stiffness, was wooden 
when asked for any suggestion, and snarled 
when Onslow inquired what ailed him. It was 
the donkeyman who put the difficulty into 
words. 

“ And, captain, now,” said he, “ how much 
might yez be getting out of all this for yer- 
self ? ” 

";^500.” 

“Begor it’s a mighty lot of money, and little 
enough too. I wish I’d it meself, an’ more. I’d 
like a house ashore, an’ a wife, an’ an ass-cart that I 
might dhrive her out in like a gentleman, besides 
other things.” 

** Oh, stop that. Don’t tell me what a man 


228 


Honor of Thieves. 


might do if he’d his pick of the money in this ship. 
I can figure that out for myself without sugges- 
tions from any blasted Irishman. Have been 
doing in fact.” 

“ Ah, now, captain dear, don’t be cross wid me, 
because I was going on to say that in case of 
trouble — in case there was, we'll say, a thrifling ar- 
gument, I’d be on your side. Mr. Onslow, you’re 
a gentleman, an’ I like ye well, but the captain 
here’s me officer — an’ — well, sor, a boy must look 
after himself sometimes, 'specially when there’s a 
chance like this ready to his fingers. ’Twon’t 
come again in a lifetime.” 

“ Probably not,” said Onslow. He lay back in 
his chair with linked fingers behind his head. 
“ Look here, Kettle, if you want to shoot me, 
pull out your gun and get it over. Then you and 
Sullivan can run the cargo where you please, and 
share it how you like. But that’s the only way 
you’ll make me consent to your taking what’s be- 
yond your due. Shelf trusted me, and, by Jove, 
I’m going to act fairly by Shelf if he were a ten 
times bigger thief than I know him to be already. 
Now then, jump quick ; let’s have it over.” 

They were in the chart-house. Captain Kettle 
puckered his head for a minute’s thought, and 
then, getting up, shut and locked the starboard 
door. He took that key, and the key also 
of the other door, which gave upon the head of 


At Point Sebastian. 229 

the companion-way, and handed them both to 
Onslow. 

“ Now, sir,” said he, “ you lock me and the 
donkey-man in here, and go and do as you like. 
But I advise you to take your infernal gold some- 
where out of this ship, because as sure as it's there 
when I next come out of this room, so sure do I 
go and loot it. That’s my bunk there, bang 
above the place where it’s stowed, and I’ve sat 
on top of those sovereigns like a hen every watch 
below I’ve had this voyage, and heard ’em 
chinkle, and wondered what they’d hatch out in- 
to. You perhaps, understand what I mean ? ” 

Onslow nodded. 

“ Then take the synch from me, sir, and cart 
your boxes away as quick as you can. Poor men 
like me shouldn’t have big temptations. It isn’t 
healthy — for their neighbors. No, by James! 
Here, get out of this, Mr. Onslow, or I shall be doing 
you a violence yet ; and mind you lock the door. 
Donkey-man, you hound, there’s whisky in that 
bottom locker. Take the clean glass yourself, and 
give me the dirty one.” 

Onslow read the little man’s mind to a comma, 
and bowed gravely without speaking. Then he 
did as he was bidden with the door and key, and 
went below, and began the Herculean task of 
bringing up the iron-bound specie boxes one by 
one out of the cabin where they had ridden from 


230 


Honor of Thieves. 


the Mersey dock. He placed them in the port 
quarter boat, which he had lowered from its 
davits flush with the bridge deck rail ; and when 
she was loaded he put the boat into the river. 
He rowed her far up stream, past bights and 
bayous, till he found a narrow canal leading off 
the main river through mangrove clumps, and 
held on up that till the boat reached a great 
round vat of black water, walled all around with 
solemn cypress-trees, and roofed to darkness by 
their fringing branches. 

One by one the boxes were raised on the gun- 
wale and launched with a sullen plunge ; and it 
seemed an age before the foul-smelling bubbles 
came up to tell that they had sounded bottom. 
And then away back for another load. And then 
for a third. The inky water closed over all,- and 
not so much as a splinter from one of the boxes 
floated on the surface. 

Small fear of any one raiding that cache, Onslow 
thought ; and two days later, with a clear mind, 
he was cabling Right ” to Theodore Shelf from 
the Eastern Union Telegraph Company’s Office 
in the hotel hall at Point Sebastian. 

Now, modern science enables us to cry a mes- 
sage by wire round half the earth at breakfast 
time, and have an answer returned to us before 
the gong sounds for luncheon ; and it was in 


At Point Sebastian. 


231 


anticipation of a quick exchange of news like this 
that Onslow had come to the nearest outpost of 
civilization. 

He had hidden his ;£‘ 500,000 of gold, released 
the two men in the chart house, with instructions 
that when they felt inclined (or sufficiently re- 
covered) for work they should, with the negroes* 
help, set about transforming the steamer’s appear- 
ance ; and afterwards had made his way, partly 
overland by an Indian’s path he knew of, partly 
in dug-out through lagoon and bayou, to Point 
Sebastian. It was an entire surprise to him to 
meet Miss Kildare there. But this time it was no 
special shock. That early morning glimpse of 
her in the schooner had warned him of her neigh- 
borhood. 

He got a return message to his cable it is true ; 
but not before noon on the following day. It 
said “ Take no steps : amwritingP and seemed to 
hint at a change of plan. 

In another place he might have resented the 
delay. At least eleven days must pass, and prob- 
ably more, before a letter could reach him ; and 
all the while he would be condemned to inaction 
and anxiety. But, as it was, he read Mr. Theo- 
dore Shelf’s reply cablegram with a frown, which 
was quite evanescent, and felt a mild satisfaction 
in the respite. In the afternoon he took out Miss 
Kildare to fish for tarpon. 


232 


Honor of Thieves. 


By one of those singular chances which occur 
every century or so, a tarpon they did actually 
catch on that first day of fishing, a thirty pound 
monster, with glittering silver scales on him as 
big as dollars, who gave three hours’ frantic fight 
before he turned his belly to the skies, and sub- 
mitted to traveling beachwards in the boat. 

“We got him between us,” said Miss Kildare. 
“That’s my first, and I’ve tried for him times out 
of number.” 

“ My first also, and I’ve tarpon-fished for weeks.” 

“ We seem to bring one another luck.” 

“ It’s an undoubted fact, Elsie, we do.” 

The deduction seemed to give rise to thoughts 
in each of them, and they let their eyes rove 
vaguely over the blue Gulf waters for the next 
few minutes without speaking, whilst the boat 
rode gently over the windless swells which 
slid in through the outlying keys. A porpoise 
surged past them, coughing as he chased a shoal 
of mullet ; and, overhead, a string of purple and 
yellow cranes screamed wearily as they flapped 
home to the Everglades after a day’s hard fishing 
on a growing reef. 

“ They’ve all got to make their living,” said 
Onslow. 

“ Who ? ” asked the girl. 

“ I was thinking of those animals in the water 
and in the air, and, by analogy, the rest of the ani- 


At Point Sebastian. 


233 

mal world. We all of us prey on something else, 
down to the ass who eats grass ; or else we die.” 

“ That’s a very sage remark, Pat. Have you 
been reading Schopenhauer lately, or is your 
bank account unhealthy ? ” 

Onslow laughed. “ Was it pessimistic ? I’m 
not given that way as a general thing. It’s so 
much pleasanter, for one’s self and everybody 
else, to look at matters from the cheerful point of 
view. But I was thinking at the time that if I’d 
been well off, and if other things had not hap- 
pened as they did, my life would have been writ- 
ten very differently.” 

“ You mean you might have been her Majesty’s 
Ambassador to the Court of Timbuctoo ? ” 

“ Or something in that line, possibly — yes.” 

“ Mabel,” said the girl, “ is free now.” 

Onslow nodded dreamily, and once more 
let his gaze roam out across the waters. The 
boat rode uncared for over the gentle oily swells, 
and the sound of the surf crumbling on the distant 
keys fell on his ears, and droned to him a lingering 
tale of might-have-been. Mabel was free ! The 
woman who had once promised to be his wife — 
the woman whose memory had driven him from 
pillar to post across the world through all those 
long, wild years, because his abiding love for her 
was too great a torment to be borne when he 
rested for a breathing space in one spot, and had 


234 


Honor of Thieves. 


time for thought. The woman who had, by 
pressure, been made to marry another man, whom 
neither on her wedding day nor at any after time 
did she ever love, was free again. Mabel Duver- 
nay now, and Mabel Kildare no longer ; but Mabel 
still, and free. 


The Cyclone. 


235 


CHAPTER XXI. 

THE CYCLONE. 

A SHINING-FACED negro waiter came up in 
answer to the bell, and brought tumblers of tink- 
ling ice and water. Both Onslow and Miss Kil- 
dare drank thirstily, and then lay back again in 
their cane chairs, panting. The close heat was 
something terrible. There was not a breath of 
either sea breeze or land breeze, and the electric 
fan which whirred on the table behind them did 
little more than send a blast of sickly warmth. 
Down the long line of the piazza were the rest of 
the people in the hotel, the men cursing and mop- 
ping their faces, the women with closed eyes fan- 
ning themselves languidly. And, overhead, the 
shingles of the roof crackled and rustled in the 
baking air as though they were alive. 

Night came, and the bell clashed out its sum- 
mons to dinner, but no one went in. The wooden 
sides of the hotel, baked through and through by 
a month of tropical sun, had made the rooms un- 
endurable. So they stayed where they were, in 
the hot, oppressive dark, and blinked at the white 


Honor of Thieves. 


236 

summer lightning which splashed the violet hea- 
vens in front of them. In heavy panting beats 
the night seemed to close down upon them and 
pen them in, so that it was a labor to breathe. 

“ I can’t stand this,” said Miss Kildare at last. 

“ You’ve got to,” replied Onslow, wearily, “ un- 
less you choose to go down the beach and sit in 
the water with your clothes on.” 

“ That would be some relief, although the water 
is as hot as tea. But I shan’t do that. I shall 
walk out along the pier over the sea. One may 
faint half way, and tumble over and get drowned ; 
but anyway that’s better than staying here and 
being cooked slowly.” 

They got up together, and strolled wearily over 
the loose white sand, and then more crisply over 
the worn decking of the pier. Between the light- 
ning flashes, the darkness above them was the 
darkness of a cave ; but faint, phosphorescent 
fringes showed out amongst the piles beneath, and 
these guided them from walking over the edge 
of the planks. 

^‘You shouldn’t stay down here this weather,” 
Onslow said, as they paced down the narrow plat- 
form, with fingers intertwined. “ You’ll lose your 
color and your beauty if you do, and get thin and 
sallow like Mrs. Van Liew.” 

No reply came, and Onslow said nothing more, 
but walked on thinking. 


The Cyclone. 237 

“ You’ve been here now nine whole days, Pat,” 
the girl said, breaking silence for the second time, 
when they were half a mile from the shore. 

“ It can’t be. Yes, you’re right. Nine days ! 
Time has gone quickly. What have we been do- 
ing all the time ? Fishing once or twice, and a 
picnic to that Mound-Builder’s place down the 
canal ; and I believe that’s all. We’ve just talked, 
and sometimes not even talked. You and I, little 
girl, know one another well enough to be compan- 
ionable without always chatting. You see, we’ve 
always known one another. But still, nine solid 
days ! I’d no idea till you spoke how long it was 
in actual point of time. It’s been very restful.” 

“ You seem to have found it so. You’ve stayed 
all the time close about here. Do you know you 
have not once gone so much as a dozen miles 
from Point Sebastian.” 

Mrs. Duvernay’s place was fifteen miles away. 
Onslow saw the point. 

No,” he said. “ I haven’t found time. You 
and I have had so much to tell one another, El- 
sie.” 

“ We always have been very good friends,” 
said the girl, and was going to add something else 
when her words were drowned by a furious crash 
of thunder. 

There had been no working up to it. The sum- 
mer lightning was noiseless, and there had not 


Honor of Thieves. 


238 

been so much as a mutter of thunder all the day. 
The great bellow of noise had come in an instant 
without a rustle of warning. 

“ That’s close overhead,” Onslow remarked, 
‘‘ and something else will follow. If it’s rain, we 
shall have a deluge falling in ropes, but I fancy 
we’re in for something different. We had better 
turn back, Elsie.” 

“In view of this heat, a wetting would be a 
distinct luxury ; but I think, as you say, there is 
something else coming besides. Oh, Pat, here it 
is. Run, or we shall be caught.” 

The storm gave but one weird moan, a rustle 
and a shriek from over the treetops, and then was 
upon them. In a minute it was blowing with a 
hurricane force which no human being could stand 
against. 

The wind plucked the feet from under them, 
and they fell to the decking of the pier, gripping 
with Uieir fingers in the gaps between the planks. 
A storm of sand and leaves and twigs beat against 
their heads. The crazy tressle-work of the pier 
buckled and swung beneath their bodies. 

“ We must get shorewards,” Onslow yelled in 
his companion’s ear; “this jam-crack thing will 
go by the board directly.” 

“ Right, oh,” came back the response cheerily 
enough, and together they began to warp them- 
selves towards the beach and the wind, plank at 


The Cyclone. 239 

a time. The girl was strong, and accustomed to 
using her muscles ; but skirts are a poor rig to 
play caterpillar in, and her progress was slow 
even with Onslow’s help. When they had gained 
a score of yards, she bade him leave her to make 
the best of his own way. “ I shall get along all 
right,” she cried. Go and tell them I’m com- 
ing.” 

“ Naturally I should,” he shouted back with a 
laugh. “ Here, let me link my arm inside yours. 
That’s right. Now we’ll ferry along at twice the 
pace.” 

But they did not get much further. A minute 
afterwards, to the kick of a harder squall, the 
gray old pier tottered and clattered and crunched, 
and the wind was filled with flying boards, and 
Onslow found himself with one arm clutching the 
weed-clad stump of a pile, and the other wrapped 
round Elsie Kildare. 

“ Hurt? ” he shouted anxiously. 

“ Not a bit. Sound as a bell. You?” 

All right.” 

“ But where’s the water? There should be six 
feet here, and I can feel none.” 

“ Blown away to sea. We may thank God the 
wind is not on-shore, or we’d have been drowned, 
as hundreds of other poor wretches are this mo- 
ment. Ah ! That’s a shave.” 

A lightning flash showed them a huge tree 


240 


Honor of Thieves. 


plucked from its roots, and blowing past them, 
squirming and crashing about like a live mad 
thing. Then a heavy squared roof-beam hit their 
jagged pile, and missed Onslow’s arm by a nail’s 
breadth. 

“ The hotel’s going down,” he shouted. The 
air will be full of this stuff in a minute, and if we 
try to move we shall be brained before we’ve got a 
yard. Crouch down, dear, at the bottom of the 
post.” 

“ You too ? ” 

“ No, there isn’t room.” 

“ Then I shall stand.” 

She dragged at his sleeve and pulled him to her 
side. “ Stay by me here, Pat. You might get 
swept away, and I couldn’t bear that.” 

“ Of course. I’ll stay by you, dear. I’ll never 
go till you turn me away.” He took new grip 
with his arms, pinning her between his breast and 
the weed-ragged leg of the pile. “ Elsie, I want 
to tell you something. You know I’ve always 
liked you as a friend ; but now it has come to 
more than that. Much more. Love, darling. 
Once my mind was full of another woman, and I 
thought I could never care for any one else as I 
cared for her. But that was years since — thou- 
sands of years it seems now — and, Elsie, I’ve — 
I’ve — forgotten her. She is only a name to me ; 
and your sister. Dear, if we get away from this. 


The Cyclone. 241 

do you think you could like me, too, a little more 
than an ordinary friend ? ” 

She put her lips to his ear. “ Do you think we 
shall come out of it alive, Pat ? Tell me honestly.” 

“ I hope so.” 

“ Honestly, Pat.” 

“ I’m afraid, darling, it’s a poor chance.” 

Her soft, wet cheek nestled against him, and 
strands of her hair intertwined themselves with 
his. Pat,” she said, “ you never knew, but I 
loved you all along from the first.” 

Then, for the first time during many years, 
Patrick Onslow knew what it was to fear death. 
Before-time life had held many torments for him, 
and if lead or water or steel chose to show him 
the Great Secret, he did not very much care. 
Now it was all different. He lusted to live with 
a fierceness which almost drove him mad. 

“You are trembling,” the girl said anxiously. 

“I know I am. You have made me a rank 
coward, dear.” 

She understood him, and kissed his mouth ; 
but no other words passed between them. 

The cyclone blew on, bellowing and tearing, 
and the fiends’ fingers of the wind did mischief 
beyond all reckoning. Timber which had 
stood hundreds of years, ceibas and cypresses, 
live oaks and pines, sprawled down amongst the 
16 


242 Honor of Thieves. 

tangled undergrowth, mere masses of splintered 
matchwood. The mangrove thickets were clogged 
with stones, with grasses, with gray tangles of 
Spanish moss. Lakes were licked from their beds 
and spirted far over the creaming waters of the 
Gulf. The land birds were driven like helpless 
spume-flakes far away to sea, and choked with the 
gale before they were flung breathless from its 
clutches. The palmetto-shucks of the humbler 
coast-dwellers vanished in dust. The frame 
houses of the better-to-do burst at all their 
angles, and spread like platforms upon the 
ground. 

And meanwhile the great straggling, wooden 
hotel on Point Sebastian dissolved away like a 
sandbank in a flooded estuary. First the heat- 
twisted shingles had been stripped off, flying away 
into the wind like some strange dark fowl sent as 
avant-couriers of more fearsome things to come. 
Then weather-boards followed, singly and in 
coveys; then gable-ends and joists and rafters; 
all floating and pitching in the air as though the 
wind had the density of a tossing ocean stream. 
Chairs and wooden bedsteads, clothes blown out 
into grotesque shapes, as though the freakish 
spirits of the storm had donned them, the scant- 
ling of the long piazzas, and still more boards, 
whirred out into the night and vanished for ever 
down the track of the cyclone. And in the thick 


243 


The Cyclone. 

of this devil’s bombardment crouched men and 
women, and other things, shapeless and horrible, 
which had been men and women once. The tale 
of the dead grew with awful pace that night. 

Once there was a slight lull in the blast of the 
gale, and the driven-out waters of the shore be- 
gan to return, and swirled knee-high about the 
two who were taking refuge at the foot of the 
pile. 

“ Come,” said Onslow, taking the girl by the 
hand, “ we must run for it.” And he led the way 
beachwards, blundering through piled up mounds 
of wreckage, whilst the stinging spindrift swirled 
around their heads and bit them upon the face 
like whips. But a flying missile from out of the 
inky blackness struck him on the curve of the 
temple before he had gone with her twenty yards, 
and the grip of his fingers loosened, and he swayed 
and fell without a word. The girl threw herself 
on his body, wailing that he was killed and that she 
too would stay there and die ; but a wild hope 
seized her that he might be only stunned, and she 
took his body in her arms, and half dragging, 
half carrying, began to go with him once more 
by tedious inches towards the beach. 

Then the cyclone burst out afresh with all the 
torrent of its fury, and to move or even stand 
against the wind was a thing impossible. The 
girl and her burden were flung heavily to the 


244 


Honor of Thieves. 


ground, and a mass of driving wreckage slid above 
them and pressed them down. “ Oh, Pat, Pat,” 
she cried, “ I did so want to live with you, and 
now we must both die here.” 

Three terrible hours more they spent there, the 
girl expecting violent death to fall on her every 
next second, the man in her arms gradually re- 
turning to consciousness. And then, like an organ 
whose wind-chamber has emptied itself, the cy- 
clone suddenly dropped its voice. It had arisen in 
a minute to the full of its strength, and in a 
single minute it lulled to a breathless calm, leav- 
ing the air scoured and sweet, and the land a 
tangled desert. The sea alone remembered its 
lashing actively, and fumed in a swell of sullen 
majesty in its deeper parts, and sent its angry 
waters back in rippling surf on to those shallow 
western beaches from which it had been so ruth- 
lessly evicted. 

It was from this last returning tidal wave that 
the final danger came, but the two under that pile 
of wreckage managed to slip from beneath the 
wood when the waters loosened it, and run in the 
breaking dawn to the higher ground beyond. 
They were bruised, both of them, and Onslow 
was bleeding from a jagged cut on the head ; but 
after all, their hurts were trifling compared with 
what they might have been. Three thousand 
people died in that night’s work amongst the 


The Cyclone. 245 

Southern States ; and the air was torn with the 
moan of those who were left, lamenting as they 
sought their dead. 

That day all who could lift a pair of hands had 
work to do, and the next, and the next ; but on 
the fourth day from the cyclone, when the fallen 
had been buried and the quick housed, ^)nslow 
managed for the first time to get a word en tete h 
tite with this woman who had said she loved him 
and had promised to be his wife. He had conned 
the matter over in his mind, and after heavy argu- 
ment had decided not to hold any of his affairs 
secret from her ; this of course having particular 
reference to the one affair by which he hoped to 
make a competence. He had visions of difficulties 
with her over it, but he began his confidence art- 
fully. 

“ Elsie,” he said, “ I came here to Florida on 
business.” 

“ Then,” replied Miss Kildare, “ I’d like to give 
business a knob of sugar to eat and flowers to 
wear on his headstall. What color was busi- 
ness? White?” 

“ Black, distinctly black, but valuable. In 
figures, slightly more than a quarter of a million 
in English monej^ ought to come to me for my 
share out of him ; or rather, as it now is, our 
share ; yours and mine, dear.” 

*‘Oh, you duck, Pat! You don’t mean to say 


Honor of Thieves. 


246 

I’m to marry a rich man? Wherever did you 
steal the money from ? Speculation?” 

“ Speculation of sorts, though steal describes it 
better. It’s there, and that’s the main thing.” 

“ Money in the pocket is better than ten plans 
to get it there any day. Pat, we’ll have a big 
steam yacht, and when we get sick of London 
we’ll go and see all the rest of the world. But 
you of all people to become a successful specula- 
tor ! Tell me, what have you been making your 
corner in? Nothing unclean I hope, like short 
ribs of pork? ” 

“ Gold, if that will suit your ladyship.” 

** Oh, this is delightful. You’ve been trading 
on American necessities. Tell me all about it. 
I think I can follow. One hears so much about 
the silver question, that one can’t help under- 
standing it a little.” 

So, with a pardonable couleur de rose, wherever 
tinting was available, Onslow told the story of his 
finding the channel into the Everglades, his com- 
pact with Shelf, the hazardous voyage of the s. s. 
Port Edes, and the subsequent disposal of the 
specie. The girl listened to the tale with close 
attention and unmoved face. Even the account 
of the mutiny and the gruesome encounter be- 
tween Nutt and his friend failed to call up com- 
ment, because in domestic Florida a little dash- 
ing homicide is such a very common occurrence. 


The Cyclone. 247 

But when Patrick Onslow had finished his say and 
looked to her for approval, he only got a grave 
and decisive shake of the auburn head. 

“ Well, dear,” he asked at last, made very anx- 
ious by her silence. 

“ No, Pat,” she said quietly, “ I can’t share in a 
fortune which has been laid up that way. Heaven 
knows. I’m not squeamish. Hearing what I do 
out here about Trusts and Corners and Syndi- 
cates, and seeing what I can’t help seeing of the 
way the people around make their living, and still 
evade the law and retain respect, my notions of 

morality are very easy and slack. But ” 

“ But I have gone too far? ” 

She bowed her face gravely. 

“ And so,” he said bitterly, ‘‘ after all that I 
have gone through, and all I’ve done, you want 
me to give this fortune up. My God, Elsie, you 
know what a hateful thing poverty is as well as I 
do. Think what this money would buy. Love 
for one another we have already, and we can get 
besides every pleasure the heart can wish for. I 
know as well as you do that it was dirtily earned, 
and I hated the work of getting it, and I’ll never 
dabble in anything so foul again. My instincts 
bid me live as an upright gentleman, and with the 
proper income I could do that, and forget I was 
ever anything else. When I cease to be poor, I 
cease to be in the way of temptation. Don’t you 


Honor of Thieves. 


248 

see ? And, besides, there is no chance of being 
found out. The money is supposed to be blotted 
out of existence, and it’s there now in the ’Glades 
as a private mine to dig at as we choose. Besides, 
I’m bound in honor to go on after getting thus 
far. It isn’t as if I were working for my own hand 
alone. Shelf’s my partner, and I can’t neglect 
Shelf’s interests for a sentiment.” 

Mr. Shelf may do as he chooses, Pat ; you 
yourself may do as you choose, dear ; but I can’t 
alter what I’ve said. I love money, Heaven 
knows, but I couldn’t use money of that sort. 
You might forget how it came : I couldn’t. I 
can’t forget some things. I’ve a terrible memory 
when I don’t want it to act. I tried to forget 
you, Pat, ever since you left us in England till the 
day I saw you here, but I couldn’t. I used to 
pray for forgetfulness all those years, and it 
wouldn’t come ; and if I were to marry you now, 
dear, with that money, I should always remember, 
just in the same way.” 

“ What is the use of carrying thumbscrews in 
your pocket? ” he asked half angrily. 

She smiled a little pained smile. “ Can’t help 
it, Pat. I suppose it’s the way I’m built. But 
I’m only telling you facts.” 

I thought,” he said brusquely, “ you wanted 
to go back into society, and have a steam yacht 
and do things comfortably. Now, without this 


249 


The Cyclone. 

quarter of a million which is lying ready to be 
picked up, you have two hundred a year, and I 
have three, which make five hundred pounds in 
all. I might point out to you that one can’t do 
much continuous splashing amongst smart people 
on that, in London or anywhere else. Unless, of 
course, you married some one else.” 

She flushed painfully. “ Oh, Pat,” she said, 

I don’t think I deserved that from you.” 

He dropped his arms round her and drew her 
to him tenderly. “ No, dear, you didn’t. I was 
a brute. But it’s hard for a man to speak soberly 
when he’s just had all his plans smashed to the 
smallest kind of fragments, and stamped upon by 
the only person in the world whose opinion he 
cares a rap about. Of course I know all this 
business was a theft, a piece of piracy pure and 
simple. But circumstances elbowed one into it, 
and I bowed my head to them. Circumstances — 
you, that is, and you entirely — now drag me out 
of it, and I’m going to bow again, and say 
‘ Kismet.’ Only I wonder what will become of 
the money. I swear Shelf shan’t have the whole 
half million and the steamer too. But I don’t 
see how we are to give my share back to the 
rightful owners. One can’t very well draw a 
cheque on the Everglades, and send it to them 
anonymously by post.” 


250 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

MR. shelf’s little SURPRISE. 

Mr. Theodore Shelf had reached the end 
of his tether, and, like a shrewd business man, he 
knew it. There is a certain mad excitement in 
standing on a high ledge of an iceberg when the 
steps which you have clambered up by have 
splintered away, and the hundred-foot cliffs above 
are threatening every instant to descend in crash- 
ing avalanche. You know you have to jump 
into the cold green waters below, or be crushed 
out of existence ; and lingering to the very last 
second is not without its fierce pleasures. The 
dive is chilly ; the waters beneath unknown ; 
final escape most hazardous. But it is not these 
things which make you loiter ; it is the nearness 
of the crash behind ; and that is fascinating beyond 
all words. 

Mr. Shelf was in a similar position. He knew 
that his commercial ledge was growing more and 
more dangerous every minute, by reason of the 
Law of the Land which loomed above, and yet 
for the life of him he could not tear himself away. 


Mr. Shelf’s Little Surprise. 251 

He had waiting for him that snug estanqia on the 
banks of the Rio Paraguay which he had time- 
before made ready against a possible cataclysm ; 
but it was left to wait. The excitement of linger- 
ing on in London was meat and drink to him. 
His daring would be spoken about afterwards ; 
and though, it is true, he might not be blessed, 
still he would not be forgotten. 

That last was, perhaps, the chief reason which 
made him stay on. The vanity of the man was 
colossal. He had been tickled by the improving 
young men, he had been tickled in his tabernacle, 
he had been tickled by a parliamentary con- 
stituency ; but these did not glut him. He 
wanted more, far more ; and if he could not dis- 
tinguish himself in the way his wife had hoped, 
he would at last be famous in his fall. If only 
he could have stayed on three days more and 
seen his baronetcy gazetted in the birthday list, 
he could then have made the most sensational 
exit on record. But even debarred of this — for 
he could not avert the crash by even those three 
short days — he did not intend to depart without 
his special ruffle of Society drums. 

He had a scheme, too, in his waiting, of taking 
a vengeance on this same wife who had made it 
necessary for him to fall at all. Without her wild 
extl^vagance he would have been able to weather 
the commercial depression which had weighed 


Honor of Thieves. 


252 

him down ; but she had scoffed at warnings, and 
increased the muster-roll of her guests, and fed 
them on bank-notes. What this scheme was he 
confided to no one but George, and George did 
not split. George hated Mrs. Shelf to the extent 
of showing ivory whenever she was near him. 

George,” said Mr. Shelf, at the conclusion of 
one of these grim confidences, “ I shall be a lonely 
man. You must come out there with me.” 

And George poked a cold black nose into Mr. 
Shelf’s hand, and said that he should be vastly 
disappointed if he was left behind. 

Now Mr. Theodore Shelf intended to have his 
vengeance on the night of a ball which his wife 
was going to give, and which for sheer gorgeous- 
ness and distinguished assembly was to rival by 
far all her previous efforts ; and he was quite sat- 
isfied in his own mind that the action would be 
entirely justifiable. Still he was a man not with- 
out natural affections. He was extremely fond 
of his ward, Amy Rivers, even though, through 
the hard commercial shrewdness of Hamilton 
Fairfax, he had been obliged to refund her fortune 
which he had laid hands upon, and so bring 
nearer the day of his own ruin. Many men would 
have visited their natural annoyance on the girl, 
but Shelf did not. Indeed, he was only known 
to be disagreeable to her once, and that once was 
the last time he and she had speech together ; and 


Mr. Shelf’s Little Surprise. 253 

what he said then was entirely to her interest and 
without any profit to himself. It was on the 
morning of the great ball, and he called her to him 
in his room, and asked if Fairfax would be there 
that evening. 

“ Of course,” she said. “Why?” 

“ After what has passed between us ? ” 

“You mean in the City ? ” 

“ I do, my dear. Mr. Fairfax has displeased 
me much. First of all, he resigned from the di- 
rectorate of my new company, the ‘ Brothers 
Steamship Association,’ on which I had placed 
him, a very flattering position for so young a man ; 
and then he caused me deep sorrow in doubting 
the pureness of my motives in floating the com- 
pany at all. I am long-suffering, Amy, and be- 
because it is my duty to bear with the hasty, I do 
so as much as possible. But Mr. Fairfax over- 
stepped the mark. Such a spirit as his would 
cause dissension amongst our simple-minded 
workers, and I felt it due to them that he should 
no longer be at their side.” 

“ So you gave him the — well, the sack. Of 
course, I know.” 

“ Perhaps,” said Mr. Shelf, with a smile of pain, 
“ he will be able to obtain employment elsewhere, 
or, being a young man of means, he may choose 
to set up in business for himself ; but I fear, my 
dear, that he will miss many of the Christian in- 


Honor of Thieves. 


254 

fluences which so elevate and purify the depend- 
ents of Marmaduke Rivers and Shelf.” 

Miss Rivers shrugged her shoulders. ‘‘ Isn’t 
this,” she said, “ to do with the City and not Park 
Lane ? As Mrs. Shelf says, we’re ordinary society 
heathens when we’re here, and as she sent Ham- 
ilton his card, I don’t see that it matters. It’s 
Mrs. Shelf’s ^ At Home. ’ ” 

“ And not mine, Amy? You are right in the 
word, my dear, but not in the spirit. As a Chris- 
tian, of course I have already forgiven the wrong 
Mr. Fairfax has done me in doubting the pureness 
of my motives. But this humble roof is mine, 
Amy, and it would grieve me to receive under it 
any one with whom I am not on terms of brotherly 
amity. But perhaps you can assure me, my dear, 
that Mr. Fairfax has already repented him of his 
hasty and unjust words.” 

“ No, that,” said Miss Rivers, “ I’m sure he 
hasn’t.” 

. “ Then,” replied Mr. Theodore Shelf, with a 
sorrowful firmness, “ I cannot receive him. I 
couldn’t do it.” 

I suppose you know,” the girl retorted 
sharply, “ that if Hamilton does not come here to- 
night, I shan’t either.” 

“You are my ward.” 

“ I may be. But you’ve never tyrannized over 
me, and you are not going to begin now. I tell 


Mr. Shelf s Little Surprise. 255 

you flatly that if it’s no Hamilton, it’s going to 
be no me. I shall go to Hampstead to stay 
with my cousin.” 

“ I cannot give way in this, Amy. My con- 
science will not permit me.” 

“ Very well. May I have the carriage, or must 
I order a hansom ? ” 

“ My dear child, I can refuse you nothing in 
reason. The brougham is now, as it always has 
been, entirely at your disposal.” 

Miss Rivers left the room, and Mr. Shelf 
scrubbed his dog’s ragged head. “ She’s angry 
with me now, George,” he said, with a fat, sat- 
isfied smile, “ but I think she’ll change her mind 
afterwards. She’s a clever girl, and she’ll see. So 
will that young beggar Fairfax, confound him ! ” 

Then Mr. Shelf put George on a comfortable 
chair, and turned to his table. He had, as may 
be imagined, a good deal of writing to get through, 
and a considerable deal of burning ; and the work 
took him till very late. Then he dressed, slipped 
out for dinner, and returned by eleven o’clock, to 
stand behind his wife, and watch her as she re- 
ceived her guests, and share with her the warm 
congratulations on their coming accession to title. 
He thought he had never seen the woman look so 
handsome or so queenly, and once or twice he 
half regretted the blow which he was going to 
bring down upon her. But then his eyes would 


Honor of Thieves. 


256 

fall on the walls of the room, and the silver lamps, 
and the flowers ; and the, items of that gorgeous 
display would go into his soul, and wither up any 
morsel of compassion which might have been 
there. 

A man’s impelling motive is not always under 
his own hat,” he overheard some one saying as 
they passed him, and he applied the words to 
himself ; and when he remembered the ruthless 
extravagance which no words or entreaties of his 
own could stay, and which alone (so he believed) 
had forced him into knavery, he felt that social 
death was a poor requital to the woman who had 
worked his ruin. A knife was more her due. 
And yet, and yet, she was such a monstrous fine 
woman, and so thoroughly clever in the role she 
had set herself to play. 

It certainly was a gorgeous assembly. Not 
made up exclusively of the very best people per- 
haps, though many of them were there ; but it 
looked wealth unspeakable. Men in evening dress 
cannot show this ; if they fail to appear like 
waiters, that is the utmost they can expect. 
But the women ! They carried it on their shoul- 
ders and backs, as they have done since the be- 
ginning of time. Their dresses were a dream of 
cost and loveliness, their jewelery a chain of rain- 
bows. 

“ Oh, Lord,” said one young man with preda- 


Mr. Shelf’s Little Surprise. 257 

tory instincts, who propped a wall, “ why aren’t 
I a practising bushranger just now? There’s 
some of the finest diamonds in all the world here 
to-night, and two Johnnies with pistols could 
stick up the whole house. Why’s England such 
a beastly safe place ? If there was a hard, wooden 
chair anywhere here to sit on and think, I believe 
I’d turn anarchist on the spot.” 

“ Don’t reduce the crowd to L. S. D.,” said a 
fellow prop. “ It spoils the poetry of the thing. 
Now, I find them good enough to look at.” 

“ Never said they weren’t,” rejoined the other. 

Only thing is they aren’t mine. Now, I could 
do very well with the lot of them.” 

“This isn’t Turkey,” said his friend, reprov- 
ingly. 

“ Oh, not the women. I’ve got one wife, and 
she’s enough for me. But I’d like the dresses 
and the diamonds. I’d sell ’em second-hand to 
the Jews, and riot on the proceeds. Talking 
of sales, come and find some burgundy cup.” 

They went away from the ballroom, passing 
down the broad, shallow stairway, and were 
going to cross the hall, when a man stopped 
them and told them the way was closed. 

“What’s the matter? Has there been an ac- 
cident ? ” 

“ Well, perhaps it might be an accident, sir. 
’Tisn’t for me to say.” 

17 


258 Honor of Thieves. 

“ Who the devil are you, anyway ? ’’ 

“ A member of the metropolitan police force, 
sir ; a plain-clothes man, at your service. Stand 
back, sir, I say. You can't come down here. The 
police are searching the lower part of the house.” 

“ My aunt ! Has there been a burglary ? ” 

“ They are looking for Mr. Shelf,” said the 
policeman, shortly. “ There’s a warrant out 
against him for embezzlement. But that needn’t 
affect you gentlemen and ladies up-stairs. You 
can go on with your dancing.” 

The two guests looked at one another, and 
broke into a strained laugh. Then they calmed 
their faces again, and went back up the stair. 

“And I was envying that man a minute ago,” 
said one of them. “ Well, ‘all flesh is but grass,’ 
as the poor beggar would say himself. Shows 
how little you can gauge a man’s finances from 
seeing what he spends. I say, bet you a fiver 
my wife goes to the trial. She knows a judge.” 

The music stopped at the end of a polka, and 
the gabble of talk burst promptly out with a 
clatter, and was carried about all over the house. 
But by degrees it hushed, and in its place grew 
the rustle of whispers. The scandal microbe 
travels quicker than his cousin of cholera. Curious 
glances were cast over the banisters by men and 
women, who half hoped, half feared to see their 
host led away in custody. 


Mr. Shelf's Little Surprise. 259 

Some were sorry ; some were shocked ; a few 
were grimly glad. The band broke out into 
“ El Dorado ; " and, being the best band in 
London, it played it so that the very chairs tried 
to jig about and dance of their own accord. 
But no leather sole kissed the glistening parquet 
of the ballroom. The only things that moved 
there were the music-players, and a tatter of tulle 
which whirled about to the gale of the cornet. 
The guests in that house were running from it as 
though the black plague had broken out. The 
police had withdrawn their cordon from the 
bottom of the staircase, and were leaving the 
spot, as the careful Mr. Shelf had done some 
short time earlier. 

Mrs. Theodore Shelf stood like a woman 
mazed. She could not change color, for happily 
that was fixed, according to the canons of the 
day ; but she posed herself erectly behind a 
chair in the drawing-room, and gripped with her 
gloved hands upon the back, till muscles arose 
in her plump white arms which had never shown 
there before. Through the doorless doorway 
she saw an unbroken stream of her guests, cloaked 
and shawled, making their way to the head of 
the stair. Most kept their looks studiously be- 
fore them ; and of the few who cast her a glance, 
half-scared, half-curious, few added the smallest 
ghost of a bow. 


26 o 


Honor of Thieves. 


Of all that wondrous crowd, no women at all, 
and two men only, came up to her before they 
went. One said, “ Good night, Mrs. Shelf.” 
The other said, Good night, Laura ; I’m very 
sorry.” 

Then these followed the rest ; and, when all 
had gone, a white-faced servant came up and 
told her what had happened. The police had 
been quick with their search, but the man they 
wanted had been quicker. He had left the house 
ten minutes before they arrived. 

“ Is that all ? ” 

“ That is all, madame.” 

Very well,” said Mrs. Shelf. ‘‘ I shall not 
want you any more to-night. Lock up, and 
then you may all go to bed.” 

Then, picking up her fan, she walked leisurely 
out of the drawing-room, and went to her own 
boudoir. 

That Mr. Theodore Shelf had made his own 
exit and brought about his wife’s social downfall 
most dramatically, even the worst-hit of his 
victims could not but admit. The police, with 
exquisite trouble, had traced him to Paddington 
Station, and found that he had taken a first-class 
ticket to Liverpool ; and, after using the wires, 
they returned to bed with the firm conviction 
that their seaport associates would meet the 
gentleman at Lime Street. Of course they 


Mr. Shelf’s Little Surprise. 261 

could not possibly guess that he and a wire-haired 
fox-terrier dog had changed their route to Mon- 
mouthshire, and had arrived in Newport in ample 
time to go on board one of the Oceanic Steam 
Transport Company’s boats, which had just 
finished coaling there. 

The police and the victims said a good many 
things when they learnt the simple means by 
which Mr. Shelf had escaped, and they con- 
fidently expected never to see him again in this 
world, and hoped to miss him in the next. 

Of all creation, the newspaper proprietors 
alone blessed the man, in that he had sent up 
their circulation with a bounce and a bound. But 
even they did not show due gratitude. They 
dissected his doings with all the cruelty that ink 
is capable of, and made derisive comments on 
his Christian name. They found no excuse for 
him ; no tittle of good in all his prodigious en- 
terprises. They painted him black all over, 
inside and out, and Great Britain set back its 
shoulders and howled with upright wrath over 
the picture. They published chartered account- 
ants’ certificates of their sales, and sold their 
journals to companies on the strength of the 
figures, and thanked Heaven in print that they 
had never gone so low as to receive benefit from 
Theodore Shelf. It was only in private that 
they rubbed their hands complacently, and spoke 


262 


Honor of Thieves. 


of him as a journalist’s gold-mine. Perhaps this 
may not strike one as entirely fair ; but it was 
eminently business-like ; and, as a commercial 
man himself, Mr. Shelf should have been the last 
to condemn it. He did though, for all that. 
Indeed, circumstances combined to modify his 
views on many matters after his exit from polite 
society. 


1 


Decisions. 


263 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

DECISIONS. 

When Onslow arrived back at the Port Edes 
from Point Sebastian he found Captain Kettle 
sitting in the chart-house, with a pen gripped 
between his teeth and a rhyming dictionary in 
his hands surrendering its reluctant treasures. On 
the mahogany desk in front of him was a sheet 
of much-corrected manuscript, with a capital let- 
ter at the commencement of every line ; and 
beyond, in a jam-pot, was a bunch of waxen- 
leaved magnolia flowers, with two coral-pink 
magnolia cones , set around with a frill of sheeny 
leaves. 

Captain Owen Kettle was composing a sonnet 
on the magnolia, and dogged work was trying to 
finish what a one-line inspiration had begun. The 
two gaunt mosquitoes, who had slipped into the 
room when the wire-gauze door was shut, grew 
visibly fatter without danger to life or wing. In 
his fine creative frenzy Captain Kettle never felt 
their touch. 

Hallo, Kettle ! Got back at last, you see, 
and a horrible time Fve had of it.” 


Honor of Thieves. 


264 

“ Than Popish saint more holier,” wrote the 
little man, reading the words as they sprawled 
across the paper. “ And now I want to get in 
something about the smell. ‘ Angel-breathed ’ is 
the thing, only it don’t seem to lay up handily 
with the rest. Angels are certain to have good 
breath, and these flowers smell as nutty as any- 
thing I’ve tried. Just take a niff at them your- 
self. Well, Mr. Onslow, here you are again, and 
I haven’t said I’m glad to see you. But I am. 
It’s as good as meat to me to put eyes on you 
and hear what’s to be doing next. I tell you, it’s 
been pretty dull work with the donkeyman off all 
day bird-shooting, and me as ship’s husband sit- 
ting here on my own tail. I fancy you’d be a bit 
astonished at walking on board here same as you 
would into a house without having to hail a 
boat.” 

“ A little ; not much. I was prepared for any- 
thing after what I saw between Point Sebastian 
and this.” 

“ I fancy they’ll have to bring out new geog- 
raphy books about this part of Florida. I never 
saw such a place. Why, sir, the blessed ground 
fairly got up and walked during that blow. I 
don’t think the steamer shifted much ; canted a 
bit to leeward maybe, but didn’t budge out of 
her keel-groove ; but it was the shores that 
fetched weigh. When once they broke moor- 


Decisions. 


265 

ings, the trees set back their shoulders and sheeted 
home, and great islands bore down on us like 
ships. The lightning burnt flares all the time, 
and I watched through the chart-house ports 
because no one could stand on deck outside. Tm 
not a frightened man, Mr. Onslow, or a super- 
stitious, but I thought that night was too hard 
for a cyclone. I tell you, sir, and you may laugh 
if you like, I reckoned it up that Judgment Day 
had come, and I got the Prayer-book and read 
myself the Burial Service clean through, sea bits 
and all, so as to fetch whatever happened, land 
or water. I haven’t led a bad life, Mr. Onslow ; 
pretty religious ashore, and never sparing myself 
trouble, in hazing a crew so as to carry out owner’s 
business at sea ; and when I’d said that Burial 
Service, I felt I’d done all that could be expected. 
There was only one thing,” the little man added 
plaintively. “ I wished I’d a new-washed jacket 
aboard. The one I’d on was that smeared and 
crumpled I should have felt shame to appear in 
it.” 

“ Well, I’m glad you weren’t hurt,” said Ons- 
low. ‘‘ It was a terrible night for any one in this 
area.” 

“ I came through it, Mr. Onslow, without so 
much as a finger-nail broken. So did the donkey- 
man. He came up here and asked if I wanted 
him when the blow began, and when I told him 


266 


Honor of Thieves. 


‘ No ’ he went to his own room and turned in and 
slept till it was over. But the niggers didn’t. 
When the steamer began to list they got scared ; 
thought she’d turn bilge uppermost, I suppose ; 
and bolted down to their fishbox of a sloop which 
lay alongside. Of course, when the shores slipped 
their moorings and bore down on her, the sloop 
had to give ; and she and the niggers are buried 
somewhere yonder to starboard, but where I don’t 
know. I’ve looked, but there isn’t so much as a 
spar, there isn’t so much as a whiff of circus to 
put a label on the spot. I’ve had mighty little 
to do latterly, and I might have struck up some 
sort of a sign-board to ’em, niggers though they 
were, if I could have fixed the place to an acre ; 
but when a grave-head gets bigger than that you 
may be writing ‘ here lyeth’ in more senses than 
one. So I left them quiet. Of course, with the 
steamer high and dry up-country, and the river 
two miles away through the thick woods, it wasn’t 
much good our messing with paint-pots and 
changing name-plates. We’d built a new fore- 
hatch and shipped it, and greased up the engines ; 
and, as that seemed to me all that was necessary, 
I’ve given my shipmate holiday ever since. 
There’s the making of a sportsman in our 
donkeyman, Mr. Onslow. There isn’t a thing 
that crawls or flies or swims in this section of 
Florida that blessed Irishman hasn’t blown off 


Decisions. 


267 

my old gas-pipe at or tried to catch with a worm 
on a cod-hook. He wasn’t keen at first ; said he’d 
been brought up in a works ; but when I told him 
everything he took was poached, by James, sir, 
you might think he was Prince of Wales, the 
way he sticks at it.” 

“ Blood will out ! ” said Onslow, with a laugh, 
and he marveled at the extraordinary toughness 
of the donkeyman. At all times there is much 
sulphur in the water of these Floridan swamps; 
but since the cyclone the sulphurous emanations 
had been stirred and set free, till the presence of 
them was almost unendurable. The waters were 
black to look upon, yellow to look through : and 
in the air was a never-failing, never-varying hint 
at the odor of ancient eggs. It even stole into 
the chart-house, and mingled with the scent of 
the magnolia blossoms. 

“ It isn’t violets,” the captain assented, in reply 
to Onslow’s comment, “ and there’s fever knock- 
ing about in those swamps as sure as there is in a 
Hamburg drain. But what’s fever mean, sir, ex- 
cept carelessness and ignorance ? You tackle fever 
with science, Mr. Onslow, and it hasn’t a show. 
And if we haven’t got science aboard here, con- 
centrated and labelled and bottled down in our 
medicine-chest, I don’t know where you will find 
it. Yes, sir, I will say that — the Port Edes has a 
romping fine medicine-chest ; and I’ve been 


268 


Honor of Thieves. 


through it all myself, so I ought to know. The 
donkeyman’s been most ways through it, too ; 
but he’s on at fever mixtures now, and he’s going 
solid at them. We’ve three quart bottles: A 
for bilious, B for malarial, and C for typhoid ; and 
the donkeyman has a swig out of each, with a 
nip of chlorodyne thrown in, just after his break- 
fast every morning, and then a rub with some 
Rheumatic Cure, and if he isn’t as right as a mail- 
boat — well, never speak to me of drugs again. 
But it’s making a tough man of him, Mr. Onslow, 
and that’s what I want, because the donkeyman 
and I are going to chip in partnership.” ^ 

“ What ! buy a steamer together and take he;* 
tramping ? Well, I hope you’ll have all manner 
of luck.” 

“ Oh, don’t you make any error,” retorted the 
captain. “It isn’t salt-water trading we’re in for. 
We aren’t such gulls as that. We know too much 
about it, both of us. We’re going to start in 
farming.” 

“ Farming ? What do either of you know about 
that?” 

“ Oh, don’t you take me for a fool, sir. I can 
learn as well as any one ; and so can the donkey- 
man. We shall get three hundred acres of land 
granted to the pair of us for nothing in North- 
West Canada, and even if crops failed altogether, 
we’ve enough saved up to live on for the first 


Decisions. 


269 

two years. We can try it, anyhow, when you 
give us our discharge from here. Ever since I 
worked at sea,’' he added plaintively, ‘‘ I’ve 
always wdshed to be a farmer.” 

“ I think,” said Onslow, “ I would dissuade you 
from the attempt if I could ; but I know it’s no 
use trying, so I will hold my tongue on that point. 
As to when your bargain is up with tht Port Edes, 
you can put that at half an hour from now if you 
like. Anyway, I’m going to leave her directly, 
and I never intend to return here again.” 

Captain Kettle’s jaw dropped. “What?” he 
gasped. 

“ I have changed my mind,” Onslow said, “ or 
had it changed for me. For my part, that gold 
will remain where it is. I am not going to touch 
a sovereign of it.” 

“ Look here,” said Captain Kettle, “ do you 
mind telling me ? Did you come against some 
preacher during the cyclone, and get religion 
from him ? ” 

“ I think I know what you mean. But you’re 
on the wrong track. I’m not the sort who an- 
nounces publicly that he will cease to be a sinner 
just because he finds himself in physical danger.” 

“No,” said Kettle; “come to think of it, I 
should have known you were not. I was a fool 
to ask that question. But it settle? it in another 
direction. There’s a woman got hold of you.” 


270 


Honor of Thieves. 


“ Or I of her.” 

“ Either way. So that’s it? And you told her 
all about this racket, because you thought it 
wrong to hold any secrets of your own, and she 
soured on it. Well, that’s woman’s way. And 
the other lady you spoke about, she who made 
you run wild, you’ve forgotten her?” 

Onslow nodded. 

And she’s forgotten you ? ” 

I hope she has ; and if she hasn’t I can’t help 
it.” 

“ Well, Mr. Onslow, if this business is to end 
in a ’bout ship, as soon as the donkeyman comes 
back from his hunting I am ready to get under 
weigh and be off. But as he isn’t here yet, and 
as we’ve still a bit of time to wait, I’d like to hear 
what is going to become of that ;^ 500 ,ooo and the 
old ship after all. I’ve been in at the handling of 
them both so long that I’m beginning to take 
quite a friendly interest in their movements. As 
you know. I’ve liked them so well at times that 
I’ve been half inclined to adopt them myself.” 

“ I know ; and it is to your honor that you 
didn’t.” 

Oh, as to honor, don’t you make any blessed 
error about that, sir. I’m a poor man with a 
family, and a wife that works, Mr. Onslow, and 
honor’s a luxury beyond my means. It was 
just my cantankerousness that prevented me 


Decisions. 


271 

being a rich man this minute. If the crew hadn’t 
been so uppish that night in the gut of the Florida 
channel, so help me, neither steamer nor gold 
would have got as far as this. And if it had come 
to a scramble, then you can bet I’m the man to 
have grabbed the pig’s share. But that chance 
is gone and done with, and so we’ll let it pass for 
the present. Still, I’d like to hear — if I might — 
who is to finger the stuff.” 

“ Kettle, I’d tell you if I could, but on my soul, 
I’m not able. My bargain with the girl I’m going 
to marry was to pocket no share of the plunder 
myself ; but, as I warned her when we made our 
bargain, I was Shelf’s man still, and couldn’t 
cease to serve him because of scruples with my 
own conscience. And so I was going to set off 
and carry his half to the bank which we had agreed 
upon, when a newspaper arrived to say that he 
had gone smash, and was in jail awaiting trial 
on sixteen heavy charges. It seems he had tried 
to make a bolt of it, and very nearly succeeded ; 
but, through an accident to one of his own steam- 
ers, drifted back into the very hands of the Eng- 
lish police.” 

“ Having got him,” said Kettle, “ they are 
likely to keep him on hand. . There should be 
charges enough against that gentleman, if only 
they can find half of them, to do anything to him 
short of hanging.” 


272 Honor of Thieves. 

“ Quite so,” Onslow agreed. “ And I dare say 
we shall learn the details about that later. But 
to come back to the piece of knavery we were 
interested in, I may say that Shelf seems to have 
been prepared for the smash. Three days ago I 
had a letter from him (which had been passed on 
the road by the newspaper cablegram) telling me 
to transmit the stuff to a place in South America, 
where he would meet it. The money would have 
been a pleasant little nest-egg for him to begin 
life again on somewhere beyond the allurements 
of extradition treaties ; and Fve no doubt that 
if he had got it he would have Sailed ahead bril- 
liantly. But he hasn’t, and he’s in jail ; and he 
will be set up on high as a warning to the uni- 
verse. There are a good many of us thieves, 
Kettle ; and he was the cleverest of the lot ; and 
he has made a mess of it. Mr. Theodore Shelf 
will be a wonderful reforming influence in his fall. 
He’ll do more good to the morality of the world 
by coming a cropper than he ever did by preach- 
ing. However, he clearly couldn’t handle the 
money if I did send it to South America now, 
and, being a convict, he can’t hold property ; and 
so (perhaps jesuitically) I hold myself clear of all 
pledge to him ; and that’s how the matter stands.” 

Captain Kettle pulled at his short, red beard. 
“ Then if you two aren’t taking any, who on earth 
is to get this money ? Hang me if I can see ! ” 


Decisions. 


273 

The proper owners, whoever they may be,’' 
replied Onslow. “ But they’ll have to be found, 
and at present I haven’t the vaguest notion as to 
who they are. In fact, as we now stand, there’s 
our half-million of English sovereigns and a romp- 
ing fine steamer going a-begging.’’ 

“ Oh, Lord ! ” mused Kettle, with his eyes up- 
on the jam-pot of magnolia blossom, “why can’t 
this boodle be grabbed by a man like me ? What 
have I done that I should kick up and down the 
world, and earn my living by being ugly to crews ? 
If I’d means there wouldn’t be a wholesomer man 
between here and heaven. I’d have that farm, 
with cows on it, and sheep, and a steam threshing- 
machine, and I’d ride about the fields on a horse, 
and boss the hands just like Abraham did. I’d 
have the farm-buildings all painted white, with red 
roofs ; and the house should be painted stone- 
color, with green shutters, and red flower-pots in 
the windows. No more lodging-house-keeping 
for the missis in Llandudno. I’d just waltz in 
there and turn the brutes she’d been slaving for 
right out into the street, and then take her off to 
my new farm before she’d time to gasp. We’d 
have a girl to do the house-work, and my old 
woman should be a lady, with nothing to do but 
trot round after her and see she did it. The kids 
— well, I guess I’d send them off to first-class 
boarding-schools first, and pay forty pounds each 

18 


274 


Honor of Thieves. 


for them every year so lon^as there was anything 
more for them to learn. But they should come 
to us for the holidays ; and in the evenings they 
and the missis should sing hymns, and I’d play 
the tunes for them on the accordion. I’d teach 
them to hold up their heads amongst the neigh- 
bors. And on Sunday nights we’d have in the 
minister to supper, and fill him out. Yes, Mr. 
Onslow, that’s the kind of man I am. Let me 
bend yellow gaiters and shave my chin, and there 
wouldn’t be a better, more God-fearing, more cap- 
able farmer ever attended market. It’s only the 
sea and the want of money that ever made me 
hanker to steal. Yes; poverty’s made me do a 
heap of mischief one way and another. I be- 
lieve,” he added tentatively, “ It would be worth 
somebody’s while to make me a well-off man even 
now. I’d he a deal safer that way.” 

“ It’s probable,” said Onslow dryly ; “ at any 
rate, for the while. But I don’t feel inclined to 
pension you off myself. For one thing, I couldn’t 
afford it out of my own pocket ; and for another. 
I’m not going to let you have your pickings from 
the specie. It’s been trouble enough already, and 
if I can’t have it for myself. I’m jolly well going 
to make my conscience pat me on the back for 
handing it over to the right man.” 

“ I believe,” said Kettle, “ I’d do the same if I 
were in your shoes ; but, you see. I’m not, Mr. 


Decisions. 


275 

Onslow, and that’s why I wish it could be worked 
different. Hallo ! here’s the donkeyman back 
again from his hunting. I wonder what he’ll have 
to say to it all ? I wonder whether the donkey- 
man and I’ll chip in over what we’ve got and a 
free grant of land in Canada, or whether we’ll con- 
trive to get independent for life before we leave 
this part of the world ? ” 

“Canada sounds likeliest,” said Onslow. “You 
and I might have a shooting-match here in the 
chart-house till one or other of us was stretched ; 
but I don’t see that that would better you, be- 
cause whatever happens to me, you won’t get at 
the gold. I’m the only person in the world who 
knows where it’s hid, and I’ll cheerfully let you 
empty your revolver at me (if I don’t contrive to 
pot you first), sooner than give it away. As for 
finding the stuff yourself, you might as well look 
for a pet mosquito in a nigger village. The ground 
closed up, during the cyclone, over the place 
where I put it, and the keenest dollar-hunter on 
this planet wouldn’t start to dig up the Ever- 
glades haphazard for a hoard.” 

“ Well, Mr. Onslow,” said the sailor, “ I’ll ad- 
mit that sounds like square speaking. But, all 
the same, I think I’d like to hear what the don- 
keyman has to say upon the question before we 
close it. You see, he and I are running partners 
now, and it’s only right that he should have his 


Honor of Thieves. 


276 

say. The donkeyman has savvy ^ there’s no mor- 
tal doubt about that ; and if he sees his way to 
give the new firm a good solid boost-up over this 
business, I’m the man that’s going to help him. 
I owe that to myself, not to mention the missis 
and the kids.” 

“ Go on,” said Onslow, “ and argue it out with 
the donkeyman. Only I hope you’ll see it my 
way in the end, because I don’t want this enter- 
tainment to end up with a shooting-match. I 
like you both too well to want to see either of you 
die in front of my pistol ; and (what I have far 
more concern in) I most particularly don’t want 
to be killed myself just now.” 

“ Because you have a lady waiting for you when 
you get back ? ” 

That is so,” said Onslow. ‘‘ Respectable 
married life will come to me as a novelty, and I’m 
anxious to taste it.” 

“ I wonder if you ever will ? ” said Captain Ket- 
tle thoughtfully. 

Then he turned to the donkeyman and gave 
him a careful sketch of what had happened, and 
drew vivid pictures of the bucolic joys to be ex- 
tracted from five hundred thousand pounds. 


A Flight and a Resting Place. 277 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

A FLIGHT AND A RESTING-PLACE. 

Mr. Theodore Shelf had arranged for an 
exodus de luxe, and flattered himself that he 
would have no difficulty in carrying it out. He 
had got to know exactly when the police were 
going to come for him at the house in Park Lane, 
and had slipped away from there in his own 
brougham, so as to leave himself a comfortable 
margin of start. He had stepped out of a rail- 
way-carriage at Newport, whilst all the authori- 
ties fondly imagined he was still on his way to 
Liverpool ; and, with George and a small russia- 
leather handbag, had taken a cab down to the 
docks. 

He pulled out his large gold watch, looked 
at it, and smiled. Punctual to the minute ! He 
paid his cabman, and, with the dog at his heels, 
stepped daintily amongst the litter on the wharf 
to where a single gang-plank joined it to the 
Gazelle, one of his own steamers. He went on 
board and shook hands with the captain. 

All your portmanteaux have come, sir,” said 


Honor of Thieves. 


278 

that officer. “ I saw them put into your room 
myself last night.” 

“ And the wine ? ” 

“ Nine cases of it, sir, stowed in the cabin store- 
room. My steward got in all the other things 
you ordered exactly as they were written out on 
the list, and for a cook I have managed to secure 
a man off a big Cunarder — by paying for him, of 
course. But, then, you told me, sir, I was not to 
spare cost.” 

‘‘ Quite right. Captain Colson ; quite right. 
Money must be no object when we have health 
to consider ; and my advisers tell me that it is ab- 
solutely dangerous for me to remain in England 
any longer. A change is imperative for me. You 
are ready to get under weigh ? ” 

“ We finished coaling an hour ago. We are 
only waiting for you, sir.” 

“Then,” said Mr. Shelf, with a pleasant smile, 
“ do not rob me of another minute of my hardly- 
earned holiday, captain. Use your magician’s 
wand and waft me from the cares of business and 
the coal-dust of Newport — as quickly as ever you 
may. I will go below now and snatch a wink 
of sleep ; and when I wake, let it be to breathe 
the pure sea air as it comes in sweet and clear and 
salt from the mouth of the Bristol Channel.” 

The captain was a practical man, who did not 
appreciate rhapsodies. He said, “ Very well, sir ; 


A Flight and a Resting Place. 279 

ril get her under weigh at once,” and left for 
the upper bridge. 

Mr. Theodore Shelf, with George at his heels, 
went below, undressed, and turned in. He slept 
placidly, and meanwhile the steamer worked out 
of dock and began to make her way down the 
reddened waters of the great estuary. He 
dreamed of conquering another financial kingdom 
for himself in a South American Republic. It 
was a very pleasant dream, full of rich and volup- 
tuous detail. 

When he woke, he began at once the process of 
cutting himself adrift from his old life. His clothes 
of every-day wear — the prim black broadcloth 
that he preached in, addressed the House of Com- 
mons in, wore for business purposes in the City — 
lay in a ruffled heap on the cabin floor. He un- 
screwed the port-hole, and dropped the garments 
one by one on to the sunny waves which raced by 
outside. And then he drew from his portmanteau 
tweeds of a daring pattern and yellow boots and 
a smart straw hat ; and in ten minutes he was 
another man. The smug, hypocritical smile was 
gone from his face, and his lips pouted lovingly 
round an excellent cigar. 

Except by stealth he had not smoked for fif- 
teen years, and as the fumes went up he felt that 
he was burning a pleasant incense to his new- 
bought liberty. He would haye smoked in bed 


28 o 


Honor of Thieves. 


had he thought of it ; but as it was, smoking be- 
fore breakfast made the next best thing, since 
both seemed eminently rakish. 

A deferential steward knocked at his door, and 
announced breakfast. Mr. Shelf strolled out 
into the main cabin, threw his cigar into the alley- 
way, and sat up to the table. The captain and 
the second mate were mealing with him, and, by 
the faces of them, they felt out of their element 
before the epicurean menu which the Cunarder’s 
cook had sent up in place of the usual hash and 
tea. But Shelf took the lead, and -called for cham- 
pagne to drink bon voyage , and unwrapped him- 
self into a glittering host, and had them at their 
entire ease in less time than it takes to eat a cur- 
ried egg. There was no holding the man. He 
was free with his speech as a bookmaker at Monte 
Carlo ; he was witty, scurrilous, irreverent ; he 
brought out tales which made even the captain 
grin dubiously. In fact, he showed such a fine 
vein of breezy sinfulness that the captain (who 
had been in his service for many a weary year) 
marveled at his strength in ever keeping it 
under. 

George was the only person who understood it 
all. George sat on a cushioned locker and grinned 
and appreciated Mr. Shelf’s changed manner to 
the full. If he could have shown derision for the 
gulls they had left behind in England, he would 


A Flight and a Resting Place. 281 

have done it cheerfully. Mr. Shelf was all George’s 
world. He was a most immoral dog. 

* * -H- * 

Now it came to pass that a sudden change 
swept over the scene. Whilst Mr. Shelf was in- 
itiating his new friends into the beauties of an 
after-breakfast liqueur, the steamer’s helm was 
put hard a-port to avoid a fishing-boat which had 
got in her way ; and whilst he chose a cigarette 
from his elaborate silver case, the steam steering- 
gear chose to break down, and before he had lit 
the dainty roll of tobacco and blown out his match 
and inhaled four puffs of smoke, the steamer was 
hard-and-fast ashore on one of the outlying reefs 
of Lundy Island. 

The mate in charge on the bridge had done his 
best with reversed engines, but the steamer’s way 
was too great, and the ported helm gave her a 
steer which no one could govern ; and so she took 
the shore on a falling tide. 

Mr. Shelf’s vocabulary lengthened still more 
surprisingly. The scheme of easy escape had of 
a sudden been snatched away. The fear of worse 
than death was upon him, and he cursed the mate, 
the steamer, and all within her by all the gods he 
had ever served. The captain suggested that the 
blame would fall upon the pilot in charge, and 
Mr. Shelf cursed the pilot with fluent rage. The 
man was in a perfect hysteria of passion and rage. 


282 


Honor of Thieves. 


But by degrees he calmed down, and, when the 
shipboard flurry was at an end, drew the captain 
aside and addressed him confidentially. 

“ When can you get her off ? ” he asked. 

“ Next tide, if I wanted to ; but I don’t. My 
mate’s been below, and he says there are half a 
dozen plates started. I’m sorry, Mr. Shelf, but 
this is going to be a job for the salvage people. 
I hope, sir, you’ll take into consideration that it’s 
through no fault of mine the old boat’s got her- 
self piled up. I know you don’t give berths to 
any officer who’s once been unlucky, even though 
he has kept his ticket clean ; but, seeing that I’m 
a shareholder ” 

“Man!” broke in Shelf, passionately, “you 
must get her off with the next tide, and try and 
push on across the Atlantic. I can’t afford to 
waste the time. Good heavens. Captain Colson, 
you have pumps ! What are pumps for if they 
can’t counterbalance a bit of aleak? Besides, 
the weather’s fine enough.” 

The captain stared. “ You don’t seem to un- 
derstand, sir,” he said. “ This isn’t a new ship, 
and she’s stove in three compartments, at least. 
She’d go down like a broken salmon-can if she 
put into deep water. Of course, we should get 
off right enough in the boats ; but, seeing that 
you were on board, I fancy the insurance people’d 
think there was something hanky-panky about it 


A Flight and a Resting Place. 283 

and refuse to pay. And, any way, if we tried 
anything half so mad I should lose my ticket for 
good.” 

“ Man,” said Shelf, putting ten shaking fingers 
on the captain’s arm, “ we must go on at any 
risk, if it’s only to Spain — if it’s only to France.” 

The captain looked at him queerly. “ What’s 
this mean?” he asked. 

I dare not go back.” 

And why not, please?” 

“ I’ve been unfortunate in business, captain, 
and it is absolutely essential that I should remain 
abroad a month or so till matters are settled up 
again.” 

“ Ho ! ” said Captain Colson, “ I’m beginning 
to see. And which business, please, have you 
been unfortunate in?” 

What does it matter ? Several. Captain, you 
are wasting time.” 

“There is no immediate hurry, sir,” said the 
captain, stolidly. “ May I ask if the ‘ Brothers 
S. S. Association ’ is down on its luck amongst the 
other concerns ? ” 

“ I’m — cr^ — I’m afraid it isn’t very prosperous,” 
said Shelf. 

“ Bust ? ” inquired the captain. 

“Confound you, yes ! ” roared Shelf. “What 
do you mean by questioning me like this ? ” 

“ I’ve got £soo in that blessed company,” 


Honor of Thieves. 


284 

“Ah ! ” said Shelf, changing his tone. “ Well, 
that is unfortunate. But,’' he continued, with a 
significant nod of the head, “ I’ve managed to 
save a little something for myself out of the gen- 
eral wreck, and if you will see me safe out of the 
country, captain. I’ll underwrite those few shares 
of yours for five hundred per cent.” 

“ No,” said Captain Colson, “ I’m damned if I 
do ! That three hundred’s about all my pile ; 
but I got it clean, and I’m not going to keep it 
dirty.” 

“ Do you mean,” said Shelf, with growing ter- 
ror, “ you’re not going to help me out of the 
country ? ” 

“ That’s about the size of it.” 

“ Good heavens, man, the police will take me, 
and there will be a trial, and everything I have 
done will be distorted and misunderstood ! I 
shall be eternally disgraced ! They will give me 
penal servitude 1 ” 

“Your fault for earning it,” said the captain. 

“ You fool ! ” broke out Shelf with a fresh snarl ; 
“ don’t you see you are robbing yourself ? If you 
give me up you lose your own miserable ^^300. 
If you get me off you’ll pocket ^^1500. Hang it, 
man. I’ll give you three thousand ! ” 

“You said,” retorted the captain, “you’d got 
some pickings out of this wreck with you ! Well, 
I guess the proper owners’ll have that when the 


A Flight and a Resting Place. 285 

time comes, and I shall have my sixty-fourth, or 
whatever it is, along with the rest. I know twenty 
decent men who’ve got about all they own in 
your rotten concerns, and I wouldn’t think it a 
fair thing to feather my own nest whilst they got 
skinned to the bone. — I’ll trouble you, Mr. The- 
odore Shelf, to take your hand off my arm, or 
you’ll get your bally teeth knocked down your 
throat. Don’t you come near me any more — you 
ain’t wholesome ! ” 

“ I will take one of the boats,” said Shelf, 
desperately, “ and get out into the Channel, and 
try and get picked up by some outward-bound 
steamer.” 

‘‘You will do,” retorted the captain, “ nothing 
of the sort. There’s a tug coming up now to our 
assistance, and I shall send you off to Bideford in 
her in charge of my mate. If you’re awkward, 
you shall travel with a pair of rusty handcuffs on 
your heels. I’m going,” said the captain, with 
an acid grin, “ to make a bid for popularity in 
the newspapers. I’m going to be known as the 
man who nabbed you when you tried to bolt, and 
I hope I shall get some sympathy for it ; and I 
hope some one will be kind enough to give me 
another berth in consequence.” 

“Just hear me one minute more,” Shelf pleaded. 

“ IVe got no use for any of your talk,” said the 
captain, sturdily ; “ and there’s the boat in the 


286 


Honor of Thieves. 


water. Down you get into her, or else you’ll be 
put by a pair of quartermasters. You’ll board the 
tug, and my mate’ll see you safe ashore in Bide- 
ford. After that, you can go to the devil for me ; 
but I expect the police’ll be waiting ready for 
you.” 

Mr. Theodore Shelf stepped on shore at the 
Devonshire seaport a free man, and free he re- 
mained for that night and the succeeding morn- 
ing, as there was no warrant in the town on which 
to arrest him. The whole place knew his name, 
and crowded round the hotel where he stayed 
with open-mouthed interest. The local police 
bit their fingers, and betted odds that he would 
commit suicide ; and on suicide the wretched 
man’s thoughts continually turned. But he could 
not screw himself up to the pitch. He read with 
morbid carefulness the newspaper accounts of the 
crash, and he dulled his soul with brandy. Save 
for one other thing, that was all he did till the 
police came and fetched him away. His remain- 
ing action was a typical one. He ordered in a 
local tailor, and once more attired himself in 
somber black broadcloth. The bright-colored 
tweeds he burnt. If he had to go back to London, 
it should be as the ghost of his old self, and not 
as the caricature of his new. 

Of the man’s journey to London, and the peer- 
ing crowds at every stop, there shall be no further 


A Flight and a Resting Place. 287 

word here ; nor of the frenzied attempt to lynch 
him, which a crowd of his victims made in Pad- 
dington Station ; nor of the sensational trial ; nor 
of the awful details of destitution which spread 
all over the face of the land. These things were 
written of at length in the daily Press, and the 
memory of them is new and raw. Therefore they 
need not be repeated. 

One other short look at him must suffice for 
the present time. 


288 


Honor of Thieves. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

CLOSING STRANDS. 

Hamilton Fairfax came into the drawing- 
room of their newly bought house in Kent and 
kissed his wife, and sat down in a deep armchair. 
She perched herself upon the arm and leaned her 
shoulder against his. He was looking gloomy, 
and she commented on it. 

“ I don’t feel cheerful, my dear, and that’s a 
fact,” he said. “ I’ve had to run down to Port- 
land to see that pernicious old guardian of yours, 
and the sight of fallen splendor is never very 
exhilarating.” 

“ Poor Mr. Shelf ! ” said Amy Fairfax, softly. 
“ I suppose he deserves his fourteen years, but, 
on my soul. I’m sorry for him. I wish from my 
heart that he had managed to get away in the 
Gazeller 

' And scoffed at the law ? ” 

“ Oh, bother the law ! I’m thinking of the 
man ; not of what he did. He was always most 
kind to me.” 

If it hadn’t been for some one else who took 


^ Closing Strands. 289 

an interest in you, my dear, he’d have made off 
with your fortune with his other plunder.” 

“ Don’t blow your own trumpet, Hamilton. I 
know quite well all about that. But the facts 
remain that he didn’t get it ; and that he was al- 
ways fond of me ; and that he maneuvered to get 
me out of the house that awful night when the 
expose came. That last thing alone would make 
me think kindly of him if nothing else did. What 
is he doing now ? Tell me!” 

“ Studying the mechanical properties of oolitic 
limestone ; making up to the jail chaplain ; and 
sampling a diet which is entirely new to him. 
He’s gone through his spell of solitary work, and 
is employed now in the quarries. He has lost 
three stone in weight, wears his knickerbocker 
suit most jauntily, and looks brown and muscular, 
and vastly healthy. He is not so dejected as one 
might expect. He has a position in Portland 
just as he had in London. The humbler opera- 
tors look up to him and envy his dashing knave- 
ries. They naturally feel a respect fora man who 
has pilfered more pounds than they have stolen 
pennies, and yet earned no heavier a sentence.” 

“ You are bitter against him, Hamilton.” 

“ I know I am, dear, and I can’t help it. The 
very sight of the man makes my gorge rise inside 
me. When I think of the awful misery he has 
caused to so many thousands of people, I feel 


290 


Honor of Thieves. 


that the only thing suitable for him is one of those 
Chinese punishments with physical torture in 
them. He couldn’t have risen superior to that. 
But as it is, he has had strength of mind to ac- 
cept the situation philosophically, and use his wit 
to make it as endurable as possible. They told 
me he is a model convict ; gets up early and cleans 
his cell ; sings in chapel with noise and zeal ; 
works in the quarries with cheerfulness and intel- 
ligence ; and is as keen to earn all his marks and 
his shilling a week without stoppages as ever he 
was to turn a profit in the City. He was sent 
into penal servitude to suffer and repent, and he 
isn’t doing either. He’s amusing his brain by 
humbugging the chaplain with a well-acted repen- 
tance, by courting admiration amongst the other 
convicts, and by scheming to get the largest pos- 
sible amount of bodily benefits possible under 
the circumstances. And he’s looking forward to 
a snug and comfortable retirement when his spell 
of prison is over. He’s a living piece of ridicule 
to the law that sentenced him, and I felt that I 
wanted to make him wear a cangue, or to pour 
boiling oil over him, to make him properly sorry 
for himself.” 

“Well,” said Amy, “ if married people didn’t 
differ occasionally, married life would be very 
dull. This is one of the times when we counter- 
act dullness, because here I don’t agree with you 


Closing Strands. 291 

in the very least. I’m quite human enough to be 
glad that a man I always liked is making the 
best of a very bad job. I know he’d feel the 
same if I were in his shoes. He always liked me 
— and George. Now it isn’t many men who, 
when the trouble was thickest on them, would 
have taken all the care he did over a dog.” 

“ Well, George has got a comfortable berth 
here,” said Fairfax. “But old Shelf needn’t have 
made such a fuss about it. We’d have given the 
animal a home just for the bare asking.” 

“ I like him for the fuss,” Amy retorted. “ It 
wasn’t humbug in the least ; any one could see 
that. He just loved that dog, and he was 
genuinely anxious about what was going to 
happen to him.” 

The fox-terrier, who was lying on the hearth- 
rug, gave a lazy tail-wag at hearing his name 
mentioned, and blinked sleepily. 

“ If fatness is any criterion, George has got a 
very comfortable job of it as dog to this establish- 
ment,” said Fairfax. “ He seems to drop into 
altered circumstances as philosophically as his 
master does.” 

“ I wonder what Mrs. Shelf is doing now,” 
said the young wife, dreamily. “ I wonder if she 
is alive anywhere. She could not have disap- 
peared more completely. She was seen on the 
night of that memorable ball ; and the next 


292 


Honor of Thieves. 


morning she was not ; and no one seems to have 
got a word of her since. I do wonder what has 
happened to her.” 

“That,” said Fairfax, “ is the other piece of 
news I have for you, and though you may like 
her fate, it isn’t to my taste at all. The lady is 
not only very much alive, but she is practising her 
old game with the most brilliant success in Para- 
guay. She is now Donna Laura Anaquel (which 
is ‘ Shelf ’ in a Spanish garb), a grass widow, and 
the leader of State society in Asuncion. The 
reigning President is a widower, and the Bishop 
of Asuncion has offered to grant Donna Laura a 
divorce on the ground of desertion. It is a polite 
piece of attention, and according to accounts she 
could certainly be Mrs. President if she liked ; but 
she has refused to cut herself adrift from the ex- 
cellent Theodore ; and at the pace she is going 
will probably get herself elected Dictatoress of the 
Republic at the next election or revolution, or 
whatever it may be, through sheer weight of in- 
fluence and popularity. She is really a most as- 
tounding woman.” 

“ She’s as clever as paint, if that is what you 
mean. But why Paraguay? and what’s she 
doing it on ? That sort of amusement costs 
money.” 

“ Of course she has money at her command. 
Previous reputation counts nothing, either one 


Closing Strands. 293 

way or the other, in that blissful republic. But 
with money and wit you can do mostly anything 
you want. As usual, she has to thank Mr. Theo- 
dore Shelf for the sinews of war. He, bless his 
heart, foresaw his crash in this country for two 
whole years before it came to pass, and bought a 
fine estanqia near Asuncion, and transmitted 
shareholders’ money to banks in that city to run 
it on. She’s got hold of the lot, and as England 
has no extradition treaty with the rogues out 
there, she’s making it hum. That woman’s a lot 
too clever for my liking, Amy ; but Fve one solid 
hope for her. Either she may meddle with politics 
too much and get shot, or else she may work out 
human justice by spending up all the stolen 
hoard, and leave that old rascal Shelf nothing to 
fall back on when he gets out of Portland on his 
ticket-of-leave.” 

“ That,” replied Mrs. Fairfax, “ is another point 
on which we will disagree amiably. According to 
accounts, there is room for much improvement in 
Paraguay in every way. The Shelfs are just the 
people to bring it about. They simply bristle with 
energy. If he had the handling of the finances 
of the country they would be bound to take an 
upward turn ; and, for the social part, she is just 
the one woman in all the world to lay down an 
entire set of new and up-to-date laws. Moreover, 
she’d make them dress like Christians and Parisians, 


294 


Honor of Thieves. 


and that is an art (if one may believe pictures) in 
which they are obviously deficient.” 

^‘Hum,” said Fairfax. Your notions may be 
generous, Amy, but Fm afraid they. lean towards 
anarchy.” 

“ I am grateful to people who have done well 
by me personally, that is all. “You apparently 
are not. You might remember, my dear boy, 
that it was through Mrs. Shelf that you and I 
came together in the first instance. But, perhaps, 
you are angry with her for that? You may be 
tired of me already ? ” 

Hamilton Fairfax laughed, and drew down his 
wife’s face to his own, and kissed her three times. 
“ If you put it that way,” he said, “ I shall have 
to swallow my resentment against the Shelfs for 
good and all.” 

“ That’s right,” said Amy. “ Now I like you 
ever so much better. I say, ring the bell and 
let’s go out for a spin in the tandem.” 


The Lucky Man. 


295 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE LUCKY MAN. 

No one ever accused Mr. Reginald Lossing of 
having brains ; no one ever denied that he had a 
luck which was monumental. He had a name for 
luck which was looked up to and marveled at, 
even in the society papers. 

Mr. Lossing had no settled trade or profession ; 
he was like unto a lily in the matter of toil and 
dress, and he made a very comfortable income at 
it. He dabbled in outsiders on the turf, in shares 
of uncharted gold mines, in the fascinating game 
of unlimited loo ; and was able to look compla- 
cently on the results. He went into all these and 
other operations with a genial, childish sim- 
plicity ; and, like the banker at roulette, there 
always seemed a steady pull in his favor. How 
it was done no one knew ; he did not know him- 
self ; and he and all his world marveled, and pro- 
phesied that his luck would some day turn with a 
rush and a sweeping tide. 

When he got mixed up with the Shelf affair it 
seemed as if this would be the case. 


Honor of Thieves. 


296 

There was something very near akin to a panic 
in Lloyds’ when the total loss of the Port Edes 
was reported, and those unfortunates who had 
underwritten her Were anxious to dispose of their 
risks at remarkable prices to any credulous man 
who believed that this first report was a canard. 
Consequently there was some pretty steep gam- 
bling gone through in the space of minutes, and 
more than one small man got broke with surpris- 
ing rapidity. 

Now, Master Lossing happened to be in the 
room as an idle spectator, and was hit with the 
excitement, and asked a friend who was a mem- 
ber to act for him. “ I’m going to play a hand 
in this,” quoth Master Lossing. 

“ At what price ? ” asked his friend. 

When they get to ninety-eight guineas.” 

“ I suppose you know that makes you liable 
for about ;^io,8c)0. There’s ;£‘ 540 ,ooo under- 
written,” 

“ I’m good for that,” said Lossing ; and an 
hour afterwards proved himself so, as he h^d to 
pay. To this day many Lloyds’ men, who were 
interested in that scene, congratulate themselves 
on having made i^io,8oo salvage by a fluke out of 
a ship that was totally lost. 

It began to dawn on Lossing after the event 
that he had made a fool of himself, and that his 
luck was through ; but he had the sense not to 


The Lucky Man. 297 

whine aloud, and so his friends forgot the matter 
in the excitement of other interests. Lossingdid 
not forget, because the bank had written to him 
that his account was overdrawn, and he had sev- 
eral bills which much wanted paying. Unosten- 
tatiously he began to look about him for a means 
of making a more regular and steady livelihood. 

As after several months of search this last did 
not seem any appreciably nearer, he was able to 
give full attention to a letter he received concern- 
ing the Port Edes and her cargo. It was un- 
signed, and bore an American postmark. It ran 
as follows : — 

“ Sir. I hear that you are now legitimate 
owner of the Port Edes and her cargo. She was 
picked up at sea, and is now in the Everglades of 
Florida in (here followed the exact latitude and 
longitude). The specie is taken out of her, and 
you will find it by digging (here came elaborate 
cross-bearings and directions). If you are a wise 
man, and wish to enjoy what is now legally your 
own, you will say as little about the matter to any 
one as possible.” 

The communication was, to say the least of it, 
mysterious ; but, because Lossing was a fool, he 
did not see so many possibilities in it as a man of 
more imagination might have done. Moreover, 
having failed to discover the suitable occupation, 
the before-mentioned, he was feeling that the end 


Honor of Thieves. 


298 

of his tether approached, and appreciated the 
loneliness of the void which lay beyond. So, 
with all before him, and nothing behind, he de- 
termined to find out how the matter lay with his 
own eyes, and with that purpose journeyed to the 
hotel at Point Sebastian, now rebuilt with new 
magnificence. 

It was the Floridan winter season, and the 
place was crowded, and amongst the crowd was 
Lossing’s old friend, Kent-Williams, again at the 
end of a new quarter’s allowance. Mr. Reginald 
Lossing stayed a week at Point Sebastian, and, 
by the kindly offices of Kent-Williams (who re- 
mained on as his guest), he learnt much about the 
manners and customs of Floridan society. 

Knowing Patrick Onslow, he heard with in- 
terest about his marriage to Miss Elsie Kildare, 
and with amusement the details of the send- 
off. 

“ There wasn’t much money throwing about,” 
Kent-Williams explained, but we did the thing 
in style for all that. She was married from here, 
and old Van Liew did the heavy father to per- 
fection. I was best man in a two-dollar alpaca 
coat (I’ll trouble you ) by way of purple and fine 
linen ; and a singer-fellow, who was down here 
for D. T., howled ‘ The voice that breathed o’er 
Eden ’ as good as you could have got it done in 
Milan. There was a regular A i feed to follow. 


299 


The Lucky Man. 

and then the pair of them went off to the depot 
behind the best trotting team in this section. 
They’re going to settle out west, but where ex- 
actly I don’t know, though I suppose we shall 
hear one of these days. We’d high jinks after 
they’d gone. Some of the boys got a bit full, and 
there was a trifle of a row, and a Balliol man and 
a Cracker from round here got laid out ; but they 
were both regular toughs, and nobody missed 
them ; and, besides, a thing like that lent local 
color to the wedding.” 

“Yes,” said Lossing, “but touching this other 
matter I’ve been speaking about,” and went on 
to discourse about a certain steamer and some 
specie, which was a topic he had very much at 
heart just then. Kent-Williams picked up the 
subject with interest. There seemed to be money 
in it, and money was a commodity which he most 
ardently desired. 

That was not the first conference they had had 
by any means, nor was it the last, for some pro- 
jects take much pre-arranging, especially if the 
projectors are not gentlemen of any marked ability 
or experience. But, at the end of a week from 
Mr. Lossing’s first appearance at Point Sebastian, 
a definite plan had grown in their heads, and with 
a small equipment they set out in a lo-ton 
schooner for a down-coast river said to lead into 
the Everglades — they and five others, whereof 


Honor of Thieves. 


300 

two were disrated nautical men, and one an en- 
gineer. 

The saga of their doings for the next six 
months does not appear, but it is known that the 
schooner returned twice, and took back with her 
provisions and digging implements (which were 
paid for in yellow English gold), and each time 
gathered two or three more recruits of varied 
tints. There must have been quite a colony of 
them out there, and legends floated out from the 
’Glades of strife amongst themselves and of 
a fracas with Seminole Indians. But nothing 
definite transpired, and, in fact, the exact location 
of the colony itself was quite unknown. That 
part of Florida does not attract the explorer for 
many reasons. 

It was not, I may say, till some seven months 
later that Messrs. Kent-Williams and Lossing 
deigned to reappear before the eyes of polite 
society, and then (for some reason which may not 
be very comfortably explained) it was on one of 
the Royal Mail Company’s steamboats bound 
homewards from a port of Eastern South America. 
It might have been remarked that Lossing carried 
a newly healed scar above his right eyebrow. 

The pair of them sat in cool cane chairs under 
the shade of the awning, watching in silence the 
low shores dip under the sea, and smoking 
Brazilian cigars with massive contentment. 


301 


The Lucky Man. 

It was Kent-Williams who, when the last palm- 
tree had disappeared beneath the waters, first 
made speech. So that’s done with,” he said. 
“ I feel ten years older, but it’s done with, and 
we’ve got what we wanted.” 

“ Done with it is, thank my precious luck,” 
said Lossing. “ I’m glad as a man can be ; but 
I tell you I’m bubbling with surprise still that 
the thing should ever have come in my way. It’s 
a bigger puzzle than I shall ever make out in this 
life. Think of it ! First a steamer — my steamer, 
that I draw out of a gamble, which is supposed 
to be sunk — gets up, and goes overland, and 
plants herself firmly in the middle of a solid forest, 
as though she wanted to grow there like, a tree. 
We have it on the most reliable accounts that the 
crew deserted her out in the Mexican Gulf ; but 
some unknown somebody comes up and paints 
a different color on one of her smoke-stacks, and 
leaves the other as it was, and screws new cast- 
brass name-plates on all her engines and fittings, 
and leaves the lifebuoys labeled ‘ Port Edes 
of Liverpool.’ But then the gold in her flies 
two miles further up-country, and dives twenty 
feet under the ground, without disturbing the 
mangrove roots. And you will please to re- 
member that that same network of wood cost 
us two days of hard cutting with an ax be- 
fore we got through it. Now, if a man can ravel 


302 Honor of Thieves. 

all that out, I swear he ought to be burnt for 
sorcery.” 

It was the fishiness of the whole thing that 
impressed me most,” said Kent-Williams, thought- 
fully. “ I think, dear boy, we’ve been very wise 
chaps in selling your blessed steamer with a 
brand-new set of names on her to a Spanish man 
who gave a low price and asked no questions. It 
was quite honest on our part, seeing that the 
steamer and her cargo were legally yours ; but I 
shouldn’t be surprised if, by keeping dark, we’ve 
saved a lot of trouble for somebody else.” 

'‘It’s very probable,” said Lossing. “But I 
wonder who? D’you know, old man, I’d give a 
couple of thousand, out of sheer curiosity, just 
to know how all this racket has been fixed up. It 
seems to me some way that Pat Onslow must 
have had a finger in it.” 

“ Do you think,” retorted Kent-Williams, 
“ that if Patrick Onslow had his finger on half a 
million, which no one else knew about, it wouldn’t 
have been his half-million ? No, sir. That cock 
won’t fight. Besides, Onslow was spooning the 
Kildare girl, and that took up all his time, I 
guess. Heigh-ho ! ” said Kent-Williams. 

“ What’s that for?” 

“ Which ? ” 

“ The sigh.” 

“ Did I sigh ? Well, I was thinking about Mrs. 


303 


The Lucky Man. 

Duvernay, the Kildare girl’s sister, that Onslow 
was spoons on himself one time. She’s a deuced 
nice-looking woman.” 

“ So you’ve said before.” 

“ I know. Between ourselves, Lossing, dear 
boy, I went up to her place one evening and pro- 
posed to her ; and — this is in confidence, mind — 
d’you know, by Jove! she actually refused me. 
She’s got that fellow Onslow still in her head, I 
suppose. But I shall go out and have a look at 
her again. Honestly, I was after her .£500 a year 
at first ; but now that (thanks to you) I’m better 
off, it won’t look so bad ; and, really, I like her 
better than I thought. She’s a most awfully 
charming woman.” 

“ Whatever did she marry that brute Duvernay 
for? ” asked Lossing. 

“Ah, that,” replied Kent-Williams, “is more 
than I can tell you.” 


THE END. 





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